Sallisaw suffers road losses to Keys
PARK HILL — The Sallisaw High School basketball teams suffered their first losses of the season on Tuesday night as they each lost to the host Keys High School squads.
The Lady Diamonds fell 47-36 to the Lady Cougars, then the Black Diamonds rallied to force overtime but ended up falling short as they lost 61-59 to the Cougars.
In the girls’ game, the Lady Diamonds (1-1) trailed 10-8 after a quarter, but it was the second period in which things went south for Sallisaw as the Lady Cougars outscored the Lady Diamonds 19-10 in the quarter to take a 29-18 halftime lead.
The Lady Diamonds outscored the Lady Cougars 17-11 in the third quarter to cut their deficit to 40-35 going into the final period but got no closer.
“Keys is a good team, and they were a statetournament team last year,” Pratt said. “
Two big factors were that the Lady Cougars had more free-throw attempts (28), compared to Sallisaw (14) — which only hit three of those, as compared to Keys hitting 18. Also, two Sallisaw players fouled out.
“Keys is a good team, and they were a statetournament team last year,” Sallisaw girls coach Greg Pratt said. “First of all, you can’t put them on the freethrow line 28 times and give them a 19-point (second) quarter, too. Not to take anything away from them, but some of that was on turnovers and easy baskets (for the Lady Cougars). We didn’t handle their trap very well. The other three quarters were where I thought we needed to be. When you give up 19 points in a quarter and put them on the free-throw line 28 times, it’s tough — 18 points of their 47 were from the line, while we only hit 3-of-12 (free throws). That was a big difference. Give the kids credit. We were down double digits and cut the deficit to five points.”
In defeat, Hannah Palmer led Sallisaw, which was without sophomore guard Katelyn Carlton who suffered an injury in last Friday night’s home opener against Poteau, with 15 points, followed by Emma Martin with six points, Channing Wilson with five points, Kaycie Girdner with four points and Jaycie Cox, Alayna Locust-Trammell and JoLee Curson scored two points apiece.
“There were some things I really liked,” Pratt said. “Katie (Carlton) is out with an injury right now. Some kids got thrown into some different positions and situations they weren’t quite ready for. That’s basketball, but all that’s going to do is help us down the road.” In the boys’ contest, Brodi Nickell’s buzzerbeater to end regulation tied the game at 49 all. However, the Cougars outscored the Black Diamonds 12-10 in OT to get the win. The Black Diamonds (1-1) led 13-8 after a quarter, en route to an 18-17 halftime advantage and a 33-30 lead after three periods.
The Cougars outscored the Black Diamonds 19-14 over the first seven-plus minutes of the fourth quarter to take a 49-47 lead, setting up Brodi Nickell’s buzzerbeating basket to force the extra session.
“We got out to a lead, which was great,” Sallisaw boys coach Zac Rogers said. “That (Keys) is a really good team, and they’re well coached. They ran some stuff (defensively) on us that made it hard on us (offensively). I was proud of our guys. We battled a lot of adversity and battled in a really tough environment.”
Just like in the girls’ game, free-throw attempts were a factor as the Cougars were 19-of-28, while the Black Diamonds were 12-of-14.
In defeat, Brodi Nickell scored a game-high 27 points to lead Sallisaw, followed by Tae Muskrat-Flynn with 12 points, Elijah Hill with eight points and Rowdi Nickell, Grayson Griffey and Luke Warner with four points apiece.
“Brodi had an unbelievable game,” Rogers said. “He hit the shot at the buzzer to set up overtime. His development over the last two years has been unbelievable. He is a really special player.”
