OKCPrepSports
BASKETBALL
Lady Pirates are charitable with their FT's, but still win
Upset minded Lawton nearly won the Regional finals' game at Putnam City when the Lady Pirates misfired from the charity stripe.
PC trailed at halftime by six, but managed to win - even though they missed 15 free throws in the second half.
The Lady Pirates made five of six free throws in the first quarter, then went cold from the line. In the second quarter they only made two of six attempts. They were scoreless in the third period on two chances, but it was in the final eight minutes that they really tried to give the game away - making only 10 of 23 shots.
The Lady Wolverines went to their tall sophomore post player, Kendra Suttles, time after time as they built a nine-point lead with less than two minutes left in the first half, but PC fought back.
Lauren Walling provided a spark to the Lady Pirates in the first few seconds of the third quarter as she decided she was being pushed around too much. Walling shoved Lawton's Kari Ostrander. Walling was tagged with an intentional foul, but the Lady Pirates served notice that they were back in the game.
In less than two minutes, PC took the lead on a shot by Andri Hardman.
The teams battled back and forth until with 6:14 remaining in the game, Lillian Prince sank a pair of free throws to give the Lady Pirates the lead for the final time.
Lawton tried to come back by fouling the Lady Pirates. PC appeared to be willing to help the visiting girls from Lawton by misfiring time and again, but Putnam City's defense was unrelenting.
The constant fouling by Lawton also hurt the Lady Wolverines, as several of their key players either fouled out of the game or were carrying four fouls when then game ended.
No. 8 Putnam City, with the 49-47 victory, advances to play No. 1 Midwest City on Thursday in the winners' bracket of the Area tournament at a neutral site to be determined by the OSSAA.
The winner of this game will qualify for the State tournament.
Lawton will meet Westmoore in the losers' bracket, also on Thursday.
Porsche Young was PC's leading scorer with 13 points. Prince added 11.
Suttles led Lawton with an impressive 24 points. Chelsea Brown, a recent transfer to Lawton High School, added 10 points.