Sallisaw splits road conference games at Stilwell
STILWELL — The Sallisaw High School basketball teams split their road NOAA Conference games against the Stilwell squads on Tuesday night at Stilwell Activity Center.
The Lady Diamonds began the night with a 62-36 win over the Lady Indians, but the Black Diamonds fell 71-30 to the Indians.
In the girls’ game, Sallisaw senior Alayna Locust-Trammell scored a game-high 32 points to lead the Lady Diamonds (12-5 overall, 4-1 in conference play).
“Alayna had an exceptional night,” Sallisaw Lady Diamonds coach Greg Pratt said. “She scored 32 points. Making 13 field goals in a game is a lot. That’s a lot of makes for a kid. That’s one thing we’ve been able to do lately is we’ve had a lot of different people put the ball in the hole. If somebody isn’t having their best nights, their teammates are picking them up. That’s playing team basketball.”
Leading 10-9 after a quarter, it was the second period where the Lady Diamonds took control of the game, outscoring the Lady Indians 27-5, to take a 3714 halftime lead, which became a 45-21 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.
“We started off kind of slow shooting the ball,” Pratt said. “The funny thing is we scored 62 points, but we didn’t shoot from the perimeter very well. Credit to the kids, they found other ways to score. Defensively, we really took off in the second quarter. The kids were flying around and getting turnovers, and those turned into some quick points. That was important.”
Besides Locust-Trammell’s game-high 32 points, Katelyn Carlton scored 12 points, followed by Sydney Weedon with seven points, Channing Wilson with six points and Hannah Palmer with five points.
In the boys’ game, the Black Diamonds (9-8, 2-3) fell behind 16-2 after a quarter, and the Indians just continued stretching out their lead from there — leading 34-6 at halftime and 58-19 after three periods.
“I just think I have to have them more prepared,” Sallisaw Black Diamonds coach Zac Rogers said. “We came out a little stagnant when a couple of our shots didn’t fall early. That’s really on me to not be able to get some lay-ups early.”
In defeat, Grayson Griffey led Sallisaw with seven points, followed by Brodi Nickell with six points, Tae Muskrat-Flynn and Rowdi Nickell with four points each, Gauge Pack with three points and Steven Vang, Zane McKinney, Alex Gregory and Luke Warner with two points apiece.
The Sallisaw teams will entertain the Muldrow squads at 6 and 7:30 tonight at Paul Post Field House.
One thing the win over Stilwell that Pratt was concerned about for the Lady Diamonds was allowing second-chance scoring opportunities for the Lady Indians. He said that cannot happen tonight against the Lady Bulldogs.
“Stilwell got too many offensive rebounds,” Pratt said. “We can’t do that (tonight) because I feel like if we give Muldrow 14 to 15 offensive rebounds, it’s going to be a tough game to win.”
“Whenever you’re winning, the world is perfect,” Rogers said. “Whenever you’re losing, the world is crashing down. We’re not going to have that emotional whiplash with our guys. We’re looking forward for the next game. The sun came up today, and we’re just going to keep going. I’m proud of the guys.”
