Roland girls, Vian boys advance to ABSCAC title games

ABSCAC SEMIFINALS

The Roland girls’ and Vian boys’ high school basketball teams advanced to the Armstrong Bank Sequoyah County Area Classic championship contests Thursday afternoon inside Muldrow’s Roger Sharp Activity Center with wins over Stigler and Muldrow, respectively.

Roland girls 47, Stigler 40 After getting off to a slow start the Class 3A No. 18 Lady Rangers advanced to Saturday’s ABSCAC title game by holding off the Lady Panthers in the first girls’ semifinal game Thursday at Muldrow.

Early in the opening period an inside basket by Roland’s Addison Cole tied the score at 2-all but Stigler led 14-2 with 2:30 remaining following a 12-0 run. Helped by their defense the Lady Rangers scored the final nine points of the quarter to trail 14-11 and Haven Freeman (3-pointer, steal and layup and inside shot) registered seven of the points.

Roland continued the 23-0 run in the second stanza and the Lady Rangers led 25-15 following a free throw by Stigler’s Jordan Johnson at the 3:43 mark. Cole (6 points), Freeman (5), Lilly Medicine Bird (4) and Madison Jetton and Kynlei Earnhart (3 each) accounted for Roland’s 21 points and Gentry Powell recorded seven points for the Lady Panthers, who trailed 3222 at the half.

Stigler trimmed five points (13-8) off the deficit in the third period. Johnson and Hiahni Howard registered four and three points, respectively, for the Lady Panthers and Jazlynn Tehee scored three points for the Lady Rangers, who took a 40-35 advantage to the fourth.

Baskets by Johnson and Howard at the start of the fourth quarter cut the deficit to one (40-39) but free throws by Freeman (3), Cole (2 each) and Medicine Bird (1) upped the lead to six (45-39) with 4:29 to go. Sixty-four seconds later the lead was one (45-44) and in the final 13.7 second Cole made 3-of-4 foul shots before a last-second 3-point attempt by Stigler bounced off the rim.

Freeman (17 points) and Cole (16) led all scorers in the game and also recording points for Roland were Earnhart (8), Medicine Bird (5), Jetton and Tehee (3 each) and Brooklyn Hallbauer (1).

Scoring for the Lady Panthers were Howard (15 points), Howard and Powell (13 each), Madi Jones (7) and Kahrma Warren (2).

Vian boys 40, Muldrow 37 The Wolverines advanced to the ABSCAC title game for the first time since 2018 Thursday at Muldrow with their tight semifinal win over the Bulldogs, who had won the past two tournament championships.

The Bulldogs led 7-6 at the end of the first frame and Muldrow’s Trenden Collins (5 points) and Vian’s Masyn Wright (4) led their respective teams in scoring in the quarter.

Each team scored 10 points in the second stanza, which featured four lead changes. Wright’s inside jumper with 4:43 remaining put the Wolverines in front for the first time (10-9) but at the 3:19 mark Collins’ wing 3-pointer put the Bulldogs back in front (13-12). Collins (5 points) and Drew Prewett (4) were Muldrow’s leading scorers in the period and Yonsi Grass and Wright (4 points each) topped Vian in scoring.

Muldrow led 17-16 at the intermission.

Grass and Kashan Buhkari made a 3-pointer apiece for their respective teams to begin the third stanza and three lead changes later K’den Richardson’s inside basket and Grass’ foul shot ended the scoring with Vian in front 28-26. Desean Mays (6 points) and Grass (4) registered 10 of Vian’s 12 points in the third and Buhkari scored five of Muldrow’s nine points.

The Bulldogs tied the score three times in the final eight minutes and took their only lead (35-34) of the quarter with 2:09 to go following Collins’ wing 3-pointer. The Wolverines reclaimed the lead (36-35) 19 seconds later on Diego Ramos’ inside jumper and with a minute remaining Ramos intercepted a pass. Following a timeout with 31.1 seconds left Richardson made both ends of a 1-and-1 before the Bulldogs’ Parker Sevenstar hit a jumper in the lane to trim two points off the deficit (38-37). A free throw apiece by Grass and Richardson in the final seconds ended the scoring. Richardson went 3-for-4 at the foul line and scored five of Vian’s 12 points in the fourth while Collins made all his four freethrow attempts and recorded seven of Muldrow’s 11 points and Sevenstar added four.

Scoring for the Wolverines in the contest were Mays (12 points), Wright (10), Grass (9), Richardson (7) and Ramos (2).

Collins led all scorers with 19 points and also registering points for the Bulldogs were Buhkari (5), Prewett and Sevenstar (4 each), Andrew Luttrell (3) and Kenoy Releford (2).

In the final two semifinal games of the evening the defending champion and top-seeded Muldrow girls defeated Sallisaw 52-31 and the top-seeded Roland boys downed Sallisaw 88-56.