Oktaha girls win, Tigers upended

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December 17, 2009

SPIRO — Spiro’s strategy worked, sort of.

The Lady Bulldogs tried to slow Oktaha and all it did was frustrate the Lady Tigers. Pulling off an upset of the No. 3 team in Class 3A though, wasn’t in the cards.

Pete Douglas scored 14 points and Whitney Brown 12 as Oktaha moved to 7-0, emerging from a turtle’s pace of a contest with a 39-24 win.

“They held the ball, they did,” Oktaha coach Chester Pittman said. “They slowed it, we don’t like to play that kind of game and we couldn’t make a shot out of it. We really never got in synch offensively but I thought our defense was pretty solid.”

It was easily Oktaha’s lowest offensive output of the year. The previous low was 47 in a one-point win over Crowder in the second game of the season.

Brown had 10 rebounds for the double-double. She also had five steals.

It was 26-13 at halftime.

Oktaha hosts Oaks at 6:30 tonight to end the pre-Christmas part of its schedule.

“We’re doing OK,” Pittman said of his club. “The second semester brings in a lot tougher teams and we know that. But from this point of the season, we’re OK.”

Spiro boys 79,

Oktaha 64

Defensive woes hurt the Class 2A No. 4 Tigers after building a 20-16 lead through one quarter of play.

Unranked 3A Spiro (3-2), led by Mike White with 24 points and Elliott Hawkins with 21, surged to the lead in the second quarter, outscoring Oktaha 27-18 and never looked back.

Daniel Hayes had eight points in the first quarter for the Tigers, who fell to 5-2 on the season, and finished as the team’s leader with 20 points. Brett Douglass had 18 and Cale Elam 14.

The two teams could meet in three weeks in the Shrine Tournament semifinals with opening-round wins. The Tigers finish the pre-holiday portion of their schedule with a home game Friday against Oaks.