The Bulldogs never trailed in the second half, but Sallisaw pulled even at 46-46 on a Tyler Sutherland free throw with 15.5 seconds left.
Zac Reese rebounded the missed second attempt for Muldrow and the Bulldogs raced down the floor. Kalua, a senior guard, got the ball at the top of the key and buried a three-pointer with four seconds left.
“It was sort of a shot in transition,” said Muldrow head coach Randy Martin. “I wouldn’t necessarily say we set up anything for Andrew. We just pushed the ball and saw what we could get. If we hadn’t have got a shot in the next few seconds, we probably would have set something up.”
Sallisaw called a timeout with 2.1 seconds left on the clock, just before Matt Oberste tossed in a half-court shot that would have tied the game. David Hadley was fouled with .9 of a second left and hit the first of two free throws to make it a two-point game. Sallisaw guard Sheldon Caughman then came up with a steal, but his off-balance shot didn’t fall and Muldrow escaped with the win.
The Bulldogs were led by a double-double from forward Zac Reese, who finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Kalua nailed three treys on the way to 12 points, while Jake Peterson and Hunter Trammell scored eight each, Joe Fate Ransom two, Donathan Caudill two and Keifer Brewer one.
“We kind of played in spurts,” Martin said of his team‘s effort. “We had good spurts and then had some others I wasn’t pleased with. We made some bad turnovers. It was a herky-jerky game and we shot free throws poorly too (13-of-21). We’re normally a pretty good free throw shooting team, but that came back and caught us there at the end. We had some good moments and some really bad ones.”
Sallisaw was led by Oberste’s 16 points and 13 more from Sutherland. Caughman added eight points, Hadley four, Matt Mitchell two, Greg Hahn two and Trey Wiley two.
Martin praised the play of Oberste, a junior who hit three treys and netted eight points in the fourth quarter to spark a late Sallisaw rally.
“We know he’s that kind of player,” said Martin. “He tries to step up and put the team on his back when the going gets tough. He hit some shots late that got them back into it.”
The Bulldogs snapped Sallisaw’s three-game winning streak and Martin was encouraged his team was able to do it without senior standout Jamey Day, who was out with an illness.
“He would have definitely helped out and stabilized us,” said Martin. “We had him out and Jake Peterson had a lot of foul trouble, so overcoming those two things is something we can look at as a positive.”
Sallisaw took an early lead at 13-10 when Sutherland drilled a three-pointer in the first quarter, but Muldrow responded with an 8-0 run. The Bulldogs were up 18-15 at the start of the second period and led by as many as 10 before taking a 28-21 edge to the locker room at halftime. The Diamonds battled back with a 6-0 spurt to open the third quarter and pulled within 28-27 on a tip-in by Caughman. Kalua and Peterson answered with back-to-back three-pointers to stop the run.
The Bulldogs were up by as many as seven in the fourth period, but Sutherland hit a three-pointer, Matt Mitchell dropped in a lay-up and Oberste sank a three-pointer to get the visitors within 46-45 with 1:15 to go.
Sallisaw dropped to 3-3 overall and 0-1 in the NOAA conference with the loss.
“You can’t just look at the last couple of plays,” said Sallisaw head coach Jeff Chronister. “Over the course of the whole game, we missed too many free throws and easy shots. I’m hoping a little bit of practice will cure that. I don’t think games like that are actually decided in the last two seconds. You have to give Andrew Kalua a lot of credit. He stepped up and hit a massive shot for them.”
Muldrow 62, Sallisaw 48 (G)
The Muldrow girls lost all five of their games against Sallisaw a year ago, but Brandie Holt made sure it didn’t happen again on Tuesday night.
The junior guard scored a game-high 18 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter as the Lady Bulldogs broke open a close game to move to 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the NOAA.
Holt was hampered by foul trouble in the first half, but hit two of her three treys in the final period and sank 5-of-6 free throws to help seal the win.
“She is a great scorer and just an all-around hard worker,” Muldrow head coach Jana Armer said. “You’re not going to find anyone who works harder than her day-in and day-out. She stepped up big. I’ve been talking about how much more mature we are, and that was a sign from her right there. She’s way more mature as a junior than as a sophomore and she hit some huge threes.”
Four other Lady Bulldogs—Brittnie Porter, Sarah Martin, Teala Cormier and Debra Silva—scored nine points each and Fontana Tate netted eight as Muldrow dropped Sallisaw to 5-1 overall and 0-1 in the conference.
Armer was pleased with the win.
“It feels good. It’s early in the season and both teams are still trying to find themselves, but I’m proud of my girls,” said Armer. “Proud of how hard they worked. I couldn’t ask for anything more from them.”
Sallisaw was led by Sarah Snider with 11 points and eight rebounds. Caitie Goff scored 11, Caitlyn Hall 10, Shelby Morgan seven, Courtney Eldridge five and Candace McNamee four.
Muldrow shot just under 50 percent from the floor (16-of-31) and was 25-of-29 from the free throw line.
Sallisaw focused on stopping Martin, an Arkansas Tech signee, but Armer was pleased with how her team responded.
“We’re going to deal with that a lot this year—people trying to take Sarah out of the game. As long as we have other scorers step up, Sarah doesn’t care as long as we win. That’s all that matters to her,” said Armer. “They took her out of the game and that’s the reason we got so many open shots, because they were concentrating so much on her.”
Sallisaw stayed close for most of the game and three-consecutive inside baskets from Snider had the Lady Diamonds within 44-40 at the 6:20 mark of the fourth quarter.
Muldrow answered with an 11-1 run and the Lady Bulldogs sealed the victory by hitting 13-of-16 from the line in the final five minutes.
