Bulldog basketball teams open season by sweeping Eufaula

Tonight’s road games at Poteau rescheduled for Jan. 13

The Muldrow High School basketball teams opened their 2023-24 basketball seasons successfully as they swept the visiting Eufaula squads Tuesday night at Roger Sharp Activity Center.

The Lady Bulldogs opened the girls-boys doubleheader with a 53-33 win, then the ’Dogs bit the Ironheads 50-37.

GIRLS

MULDROW 53, EUFAULA 33

With the game tied at 3 with 7:23 left in the first quarter, the Lady Bulldogs (1-0) went on a 7-1 run, capped by a basket by Kayla Ellingberg with 3:10 left in the first quarter, for a 10-4 lead. Muldrow led 12-7 after the opening period.

The Lady Ironheads (0-1) would not go away as they cut their deficit to 14-12 with 5:26 left before halftime. However, as it would end up, that would be as close as the Eufaula girls would get.

A basket by Muldrow’s Kennedi Wight with 25 seconds left before halftime put the Lady Bulldogs ahead 23-14 at the break.

The second half saw the Lady Bulldogs pull away as they outscored the Lady Ironheads 15-6 in the third quarter to take a 38-20 lead into the final period.

The Lady Bulldogs built as much as a 21-point lead on three occasions in the fourth quarter, with the last time being at 53-32 with 1:28 left in the game on a basket by Jaydin Dean.

“I didn’t feel we were necessarily taking good shots in the first half,” Muldrow girls coach Jana Armer said. “I think we were taking whatever was available. In the second half, we did a much better job of finding the open person and making that one extra pass to make that person be wide open. We kind of got some easy baskets, and that got us going in the right direction.”

If there was one thing that was disappointing to the newly inducted Oklahoma Girls Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame member was the slow start the Lady Bulldogs went through in the first half.

“I have a veteran crew,” Armer said. “I’ve got a crew that’s got six seniors that have played since they were freshmen. I expect a lot out of them. I sure didn’t feel like we played a very good first half, but I felt like we played much better in the second half.”

For the game, Wight scored a game-high 17 points and Claire Tabor added 10 points to lead Muldrow, followed by Ellingberg with six points, Maysi Fields with four points, Katelynn Moore, Makynlee Morton and Cailey Grinstead with three points each, Dean, Gracie Prewett and Kennady Moore each with two points and Danica Tune with a free throw.

BOYS

MULDROW 50, EUFAULA 37

The Bulldogs (1-0) led from wire to wire, but the first half was close.

A basket by Teaguen Collins and a 3-point bucket by Jaxson Anstine gave Muldrow a 5-0 lead with 7:20 left in the first quarter.

The Ironheads (0-1) cut their deficit two a single basket twice in the first half of the opening period, the last time coming on a basket by Maddox Bridges with 3:28 remaining in the period to cut Muldrow’s advantage to 7-5.

However, the ’Dogs ended the first quarter by scoring three consecutive free throws — one apiece by Kenoy Releford, Gunner Vanscoy and Collins for a 10-5 lead with 64 seconds left in the period.

Eufaula’s Payden Lanham hit a free throw with 11 seconds remaining in the quarter to cut his team’s deficit to 10-6 after the first period.

The Ironheads cut the Muldrow advantage to two points twice in the first minute of the second quarter, the last time coming with 7:09 remaining in the first half on a basket by Bridges to cut Eufaula’s deficit to 12-10.

However, the Bulldogs went on a 5-0 run, capped by a basket by Parker Sevenstar with 5:16 left before halftime, to put Muldrow ahead 17-10.

Back came the Ironheads as they went on a 7-2 run, capped by Luke Parish’s basket with 2:20 left in the first half, to cut Eufaula’s deficit to 19-17.

A free throw by Drew Prewett with 1:16 remaining before halftime gave Muldrow a 20-17 halftime lead.

Muldrow opened the second half by going on a 5-1 run, capped by another basket by Prewett with 5:50 left in the third quarter, to up Muldrow’s advantage to 25-18.

The Ironheads scored the game’s next three points — a free throw by Keaton Parish and a basket by Jentry James — to cut Eufaula’s deficit to 25-21 with 4:27 remaining in the period.

After Eufaula cut its deficit back to two points once more at 29-27 on James’ basket with 2:44 left in the period, Muldrow ended the quarter on a 5-0 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Deshawn Wilson with 1:27 remaining in the period, to put Muldrow ahead 34-27 going into the fourth quarter.

The final period is where the Bulldogs started to get some separation from the Ironheads as Muldrow built as much as an 18-point lead on two occasions, the last time was at 50-32 on a basket by Sevenstar with 2:16 left in the game.

“A win is a win,” Muldrow boys coach Terry Collins said. “It (a win) makes things a little better.”

There were a lot of good things Collins saw in his team in its season opener.

“I thought we rebounded the ball pretty good,” he said. “There were times we moved the ball like we were supposed to. Defensively, we had some times where we really hooked up and made it hard for them to score.”

On the other hand, there’s some areas in which Collins wants to see improvement.

“We have to take care of the ball,” he said. “We have to do a better job in execution (of plays).”

Prewett led Muldrow with a game-high 13 points and Sevenstar added 11 points to lead Muldrow, followed by Collins with seven points, Wilson with six points, Releford with five points, Anstine and Jesse Kilinc with two points each and Vanscoy with a free throw.

Tonight’s road NOAA Conference openers at Poteau were canceled due to the Pirates just getting out of the Class 4A high school football playoffs. The conference twinbill has been rescheduled for 6 and 7:30 p.m. Jan. 13.