By Mike Kays

Phoenix Sports Editor



Soaking in the emotion of the moment in a dark room adjacent to his office, Terry Scott couldn’t recall the minister who came in and prayed for him and his program earlier in the day.

Considering the Muskogee Roughers’ Frontier Conference struggles of late, perhaps divine intervention was brought to Ron Milam Gymansium on Tuesday night.

Shooting 80 percent in the fourth quarter as a team, the Roughers stormed from a 15-point deficit after three quarters to send the game into overtime on Micah Smith’s 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 12.5 seconds to play. Devante Wilson then scored six of his team’s 11 points in the extra period to hand No. 1 Jenks (18-1, 4-1 Frontier Conference) its first loss this season, 68-62.

“That meant a lot and the fans meant a lot tonight,” a misty-eyed Scott said of his team, now 11-6 overall and 2-3 in conference play. “We’ve kept telling the kids that maybe we can get a game like this. I didn’t want to give up on them even though some people had started writing them off.”

Maybe those who had given up were among the empty seats in what was easily the worst home crowd this season in the half-full gym.

“The kids just needed a break and they made themselves one tonight on a pretty big stage,” Scott said.

Not only did they battle back from the double-digit deficit, they overcame some lopsided foul issues early. Nine of the first 11 whistles went against the Roughers over the first four minutes.

By the end, three starters were on the bench. Lamont Lee exited in the fourth quarter and Jerome Beasley and Daniel Moore fouled out in overtime.

But Muskogee shot 8-of-10 in the fourth quarter and Micah Smith poured in 12 of his game-high 25 points in that frame. The only two misses were Smith’s.

“Coach told us at half that we’ve given this up too often and we can’t keep giving up games like this,” Smith said, noting a halftime meeting that took up the shootaround time. “We didn’t give up. This makes me feel like we can beat anyone.”

It was the second time Jenks coach Clay Martin has fallen to his former team. Martin coached at Muskogee in 2002-03 before moving to Jenks.

“They ran a lot of ball screens for Micah and we got a little lazy on our coverage. But give Micah a lot of credit for knocking them down. Not too many could have done it,” Martin said.

Wilson had five points at the end of regulation and took charge as the early foul issues came back to haunt Muskogee. His inside feed from Oren Faulk with 3:14 on the overtime clock gave Muskogee a 59-57 advantage and its first lead since the 2:20 mark of the opening quarter.

“I just rode the momentum wave,” Wilson said. “This win means a lot.”

Martin said it showed.

“They bowed up, got hungry and played very well down the stretch,” he said.

Muskogee had 17 fouls in the first half and University of Tulsa-bound Bryson Pope was a perfect 9-of-9 at the half with 13 points. He was held to a free throw in the second half and scored only a field goal in overtime to finish with 16 points.

Daniel Moore had 10 points for Muskogee, including four straight free throws in the third quarter. Faulk had eight points and 11 rebounds.

Doug McKnight added 14 for Jenks.

The Roughers go to Owasso on Friday before returning home for games against Tulsa Washington on Saturday afternoon.

Jenks girls 79, MHS 37

Muskogee’s biggest difficulty was handling Jenks’ zone, which forced 12 first-half turnovers and forged a 35-16 halftime lead.

That and the post presence of Taylor Newcomb, who had eight points, four defensive rebounds and one blocked shot in the first half.

It didn’t get any prettier after the break.

Muskogee (2-15, 0-5) totaled 25 turnovers and the Lady Trojans continued to hurt them inside and in the transition game.

But the worst news wasn’t in the scorebook. LaDarra Brown, the team’s second-leading scorer Tuesday night with six points, suffered what locker room reports labeled a torn medial collateral ligament in her left knee with 5:13 to go in the game. She had to be carried off the court.

Hy-C Stancle’s eight points led MHS, which fell for the seventh consecutive time. Jasmine Smith had 12 points for Jenks (10-9, 3-2) with four others — Garrah Draper, Jordan Van Dam, Avery Rains and Newcombe — finishing with 11 points each.