If Wagoner’s boys basketball team is hot right now, then Roy Thomas is blazing.

Thomas burned the nets on 8-of-12 shooting from the field in the first quarter on his way to a team-high 23 points in leading the Bulldogs to the 52-39 victory against the Hilldale Hornets in the regular season finale for both teams at the Hilldale Event Center on Monday night.

The 6-foot-2 senior scored all 15 of his team’s points in that first period to spoil Hilldale’s Senior Night in the last Verdigris Valley Conference game of the season.

“They couldn’t stop me down low,” Thomas said. “They had a mismatch on me. Coach (Jason Giddens) told me to go at them and not away from them because they couldn’t guard me. I knew I could outjump (Hunter Harrison) and I took advantage of it.”

Thomas finished the game with 10-of-16 shooting. He also grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds for his second-straight double after scoring 26 points and pulling down 16 rebounds in a win against Jay this past Friday night.

“Roy has always played hard,” Giddens said. “Earlier in the season, he’d get the rebound and shoot it before he would get to the floor. He likes to score and realizes if he slows down a little bit, he can score and help us. He’s also been getting rebounds all year. That first quarter was phenomenal.”

Hilldale coach Jeremy Rogers was impressed, too.

“He’s more athletic than anyone we have,” he said. “He’s a pretty good player.”

In the meantime, Wagoner won its ninth straight game to improve to 15-7 overall going into the Class 4A Area IV district  game at 8 p.m. Friday at Cascia Hall.

Kerwin Thomas added nine points for the Bulldogs, who finish 12-3 and second place in the conference behind Vinita.

Wagoner led 15-5 after the first quarter and 33-13 at halftime.

Hunter Harrison and Dylan Rowan led the Hornets (12-10, 8-7) with nine points each. Tony Cabrera added eight.

Hilldale plays at Poteau in districts at 8 p.m. Saturday.



Girls:

Wagoner 40, HHS 36

The excitement of sending the game into overtime didn’t last for Hilldale as Wagoner’s Falicia Garrison and Arlandria Freeman led the way as Lady Bulldogs (5-16, 4-10) snapped a four-game losing streak.

“I knew I had to settle them down and get them focused (in overtime),” Wagoner coach Mike Blair said. “It’s not like we lost. We had four minutes to play.”

Hilldale (6-17, 3-11) sent the game into overtime when Jaycie Cox sank a jump shot at the buzzer to tie the score at 36-36.

“It was an exciting shot, but we should’ve still won the game,” she said. “This game will boost our confidence for districts (at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Poteau) and we’ll try to get a win there.”

Freeman and Garrison finished with 15 and 13 points, respectively. Freeman also had 13 rebounds.

Wagoner plays at Cascia Hall at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Cox ended with five points and Jessica Vanschuyver led the Lady Hornets with 11 points. Hilldale trailed the whole game until the buzzer beater.

“We  have to learn how to win,” Hilldale coach Scott Hensley said. “When you’re trying, you’re going to take some tough losses. They were happy going into overtime and emotional about that. We had our opportunities.”