Roland girls win regionals, Running Rangers regional runners-up

The Roland Lady Rangers have only one win separating them from the Class 3A State Tournament, which will be March 7-9 in Oklahoma City.

The Lady Rangers defeated the Spiro Lady Bulldogs 56-47 in Saturday night’s Class 3A Regional Tournament finals at the Ranger Dome to set up an area final match-up with the fourth-ranked Alva Lady Goldbugs at 6 p.m. Friday night in Kellyville with the winner making state. However, the loser will have another shot at making state in the area consolation finals at 6 p.m. Saturday.

“We’ve got to get one more win,” Roland girls coach Scott Nelke said. “We’re pretty happy with the win. These girls got hardware, and they’re fired up. I’m just happy for them, especially those seniors.”

The Running Rangers lost 53-36 to the Tulsa Metro Christian Patriots in Saturday night’s Class 3A Regional Tournament finals. The Running Rangers still advance to this week’s area tournament, but must win three times in three days to make state, with the first match-up a 2:30 p.m. Thursday game against Alva in the area consolation quarterfinals.

Roland boys coach Eddie Lewis isn’t fearful of the three-wins-in-three-days situation his team is now facing.

“We’re still playing next week,” he said. “We get to play more ball that way. Hopefully, we can win them.”

Both Roland teams, although starting out sluggish early on during Thursday night’s regional championship semifinals, ended up sweeping the Heavener squads as the Lady Rangers won 58-34 and the Running Rangers prevailed 52-42.

GIRLS REGIONAL FINALS

ROLAND 56, SPIRO 47

The Lady Rangers (19-6) raced out to a 19-6 lead after Halle Freeman’s basket with 1:42 left in the first quarter, but back-to-back 3-point basket by Spiro’s Kambrie Rogers and Lindsay Wortham — who will be joining Muldrow cross country sisters Katelynn and Kennady Moore at Carl Albert State College this fall — cut Spiro’s deficit to 19-12 after a period.

A pair of Lilly Medicine Bird free throws with 49 seconds left before halftime put Roland ahead 30-19, but Wortham’s free throws 11 seconds later for the 12th-ranked Lady Bulldogs (21-6) cut Roland’s lead to 30-21 at halftime.

The Lady Bulldogs got as close as a point on two occasions in the third quarter, with the last time being at 35-34 with 1:25 left in the period on a basket by Rylee Darneal, but Medicine Bird’s basket with 31 seconds remaining in the quarter put Roland up 39-34. A trey by Rogers just 10 seconds later cut Spiro’s deficit to 39-37 entering the final period. However, that was as close as Spiro got.

Another basket by Halle Freeman with 2:48 left to play capped a 15-2 run for Roland to put the Lady Rangers ahead 54-39 to all but seal the deal.

“We made a run, and they would make a run,” Scott Nelke said. “I told them it would come down to the last run, so you have to keep playing hard. I was proud of the way we kept battling.”

For the game, Roland put a quartet of players into double figures, led by Haven Freeman’s 17 points, followed by Halle Freeman’s 13 points, Medicine Bird’s 12 points and Ryanne Nelke’s 11 points. Kynlei Earnhart added three points.

BOYS REGIONAL FINALS

TULSA METRO CHRISTIAN 53, ROLAND 36

Back-to-back baskets by Cason Perryman and Buck Triplett put the Running Rangers (20-5) up 6-4 with 5:09 left in the first quarter. It would prove to be Roland’s last lead of the night.

The Patriots (16-10), ranked ninth in Class 3A, ended the period with a 7-2 run to take an 11-8 lead into the second period.

A free throw by Paul Johnson with 6:22 left before halftime cut Roland’s deficit to 13-9, but that ended up being as close as the Running Rangers would get.

The Patriots ended the first half with a 14-7 run to take a 27-16 lead at halftime, which became a 34-25 advantage going into the fourth quarter.

“All night long, they were ahead of us,” Lewis said. “They hit a couple of shots, and we missed a couple of shots there early. We could never break their runs. We got to within nine (points) going into the fourth quarter. We just had to hit some shots to make a little run (and didn’t).”

In defeat, Carson Wiggins scored 13 points to lead Roland, followed by Triplett with eight points, Johnson and Kade Shook with four points each, Raesean Perryman with three points and Cason Perryman and Mason Kemp with two points apiece.

GIRLS REGIONAL SEMIFINALS

ROLAND 58, HEAVENER 34

The Lady Rangers broke a 2-all tie with 7:04 left in the first quarter by ending the period with an 11-5 run, capped by a basket by Ryanne Nelke, to put Roland ahead 13-7 going into the second quarter.

A 3-point basket by Britlee Reed for the Lady Wolves (9-18) with 4:10 left before halftime cut the Heavener deficit to 18-14, but the Lady Rangers ended the first half with a 9-4 run to take a 27-18 halftime lead.

The Lady Rangers put away the game with a 21-5 third quarter to up their advantage to 48-23 entering the final period.

“I think we played pretty well,” Scott Nelke said. “Defensively, there was some rust because we hadn’t played a live game in 12 days. I’m happy with what we did (Thursday night). A win always at this time is good. We’ll just take it one game at a time.”

For the game, Roland put a trio of players into double figures, led by Nelke’s game-high 19 points, followed by Halle Freeman’s 16 points and Kynlei Earnhart’s 15 points. Lilly Medicine Bird had seven points, while Brooklyn Hallbauer had a free throw.

BOYS REGIONAL SEMIFINALS

ROLAND 52, HEAVENER 42

A basket by Heavener’s Chris Heatherington at the buzzer gave the Wolves (13-13) a 9-8 lead at the end of the opening quarter.

The second quarter saw three ties, the last at 17-all after a pair of Mason Kemp free throws with 1:26 left before halftime. Just 16 seconds later, Roland’s Carson Wiggins hit a pair of charity tosses to give the Running Rangers, who saw their three-game losing streak to finish the regular season come to an end, a 19-17 halftime advantage.

A 3-point basket by Zaid Rodriguez with 5:55 left in the third quarter put Heavener back ahead at 25-24, its last lead. Heavener’s P.J. Riddley hit a trey with 3:13 remaining in the period to knot the game at 28-all.

The Running Rangers ended the quarter with a 7-0 run, capped by a pair of Wiggins free throws with 17 second left in the period, to give Roland a 35-28 lead going into the fourth quarter.

The Running Rangers got as much as a 13-point lead in the final period at 46-33 on Wiggins’ basket with 4:05 left in the game.

“We missed some shots (early), but I thought in the second half, we played a little bit better,” Lewis said. “We made a few shots (in the second half). We do have to do a better job at the end of the game. I kind of thought we lost our composure. We had Buck Triplett step up there and hit four big free throws, which was a big thing for us.”

For the contest, Wiggins led Roland with 10 points, followed by Kade Shook with eight points, Triplett and DaVohn Hall with seven points each, Paul Johnson with six points, Raesean Perryman and Cason Perryman each with five points and Kemp with four points.