WAGONER — It took Tahlequah roughly 33 minutes to put Wagoner away for good. The Class 5A No. 8 Lady Tigers, perhaps, let Wagoner hang around a little bit longer than they should have on Tuesday night.

But a night after getting torched by Fort Gibson, 4A’s top team, a 67-50, wire-to-wire victory at the Hughes Event Center was just what Tahlequah was looking for.

With freshman guard Desiree Phipps — who suffered a lower right-leg injury on Monday against Fort Gibson — in a walking boot on the bench, fellow backcourt mate, Randee O’Donnell, led the charge for Tahlequah. O’Donnell, who hauled in six rebounds, tossed in 21 points on a 5-of-15 shooting performance from the field and 11 of 13 from the free-throw line.

“We purposely did some things different,” Tahlequah coach Chad Walker said of his team’s approach against Wagoner. “We want to try and take a different approach here while we wait on Dez to come back.”

Casey Beaston started fast and finished strong for Tahlequah, tallying 17 points and seven rebounds. The junior forward was efficient from the field, going 6 of 10 on field-goal attempts while making all four of her foul shots.

“Casey settled for that long jumper, quite often,” Walker said of Beaston’s signature shot at or around the free-throw line.

Alissa Hadley filled Phipps’ spot in the starting rotation and, in the process, scored nine points, including a 3-pointer with 3:03 left that, seemingly, put the Lady Bulldogs away. Marissa Girdner also had nine points for the Lady Tigers, who finished 27 of 31 from the free-throw line.

“We practice free throws hard,” Walker said. “Last year, we couldn’t hit a free throw — no one could. So we spend a lot of time working on pressure free throws.”

Wagoner, led by Alandria Freeman’s 21 points, threatened to steal the lead from Tahlequah in the third quarter, despite trailing 33-26 at halftime. The Lady Bulldogs (4-15) cut Tahlequah’s advantage to 35-34 at the four-minute mark of the third period when Walker called a timeout to get his team to refocus.

“[I told the team], basically, we’ve got to stop dribble penetration,” Walker recalled telling him team. “We were doing a sorry job of stopping dribble penetration, and that’s the whole reason we played zone all night was to stop that. We were going to live with the fact that they might hit some 3s.”

Out of the huddle, the Lady Tigers (13-6) went on a 7-0 run, which culminated in a 10-2 spurt to transform in a 45-36 edge after three quarters for Tahlequah.

The Lady Bulldogs capitalized on open 3-point shots in the second quarter, converting on 3 of 4 attempts. Wagoner went 8 of 9 from the floor in the second period and finished 17 of 46 on field-goal attempts in the game

Beating Wagoner for the second time this season helped the Lady Tigers snap a two-game losing streak. Tahlequah will be back in action at home Friday night against Collinsville.



Wagoner 67, Tahlequah (boys) 60

Tahlequah’s six-point halftime advantage vaporized quickly in the third as Tahlequah had its three-game winning streak snapped. The Bulldogs outscored Tahlequah 24-10 in the third quarter to take control of the contest.

Kerwin Thomas scored 15 points to pave the way for Wagoner, who has now won seven games in a row. Decarius Clark added 11 points for the Bulldogs (12-6).

Tahlequah (12-7) was led by Lain Wright’s 14 points, while Spencer Risenhoover chipped in with 10.