Tiger teams sweep Class 2A District Tournament titles at Ketchum

KETCHUM — The Central High School basketball teams didn’t mind the twoplus- hour bus trip as they made the return trip a happy one by sweeping the Class 2A District Tournament title games Friday night.

The Lady Tigers routed the Ketchum Lady Warriors 59-18, then the Tigers got past the host Warriors 61-59.

The Lady Tigers (19-4) and Tigers (168) advanced to the Class 2A Regional Tournament, which will begin Thursday in Ketchum as they will each meet Hartshorne at 6 p.m. (girls) and 7:30 p.m. (boys) with the winners not only playing in Saturday night’s regional finals at 6 p.m. (girls) and 7:30 p.m. (boys), but also will earn a spot in the Class 2A Area Tournament, which will be at Enid’s Stride Bank Center — the same site as the Class 4A Dual State Wrestling Tournament in which the Sallisaw Black Diamonds got to the state semifinals — which will be Feb. 29-March 1. The regional finals opponent for either or both teams could be Oktaha, which canceled out on the CHS teams Feb. 9 on what would have been Senior Night.

However, if either or both Central teams lose Thursday night, they will be in the regional consolation semifinals at 6 p.m. (girls) and 7:30 p.m. (boys) Friday in Ketchum, with wins putting them into the regional consolation finals at 1 p.m. (girls) and 2:30 p.m. (boys) Saturday in Ketchum with victories sending the locals to the area tournament.

In the girls’ district finals, the Lady Tigers jumped out to a 16-1 lead after a quarter and never looked back.

For the game, Hadlie Woods scored a game-high 17 points and Cambree Bair added 11 points to lead Central, followed by Ayrland Jiles with eight points, Paris Campbell with five points, Autumn Cernicek with four points, Gracie Thompson, Haley Cheek and Keeley Poindexter with three points each, Koda Robbins and Alyvia Warner each with two points and Alyssa Harris with free throw.

In the boys’ district finals, the Tigers trailed 25-22 at halftime but outscored the Warriors 39-24 in the second half to get the come-from-behind win.

For the game, Aiden Sainer scored a game-high 18 points and Hardy Buzzard added 11 points to lead Central, followed by Jace Mendenhall with eight points, Joseph Lee, Coy Blackburn and Isaac Rogers with six points each, Devon Baggs with four points and Braxin Goodson with two points.