The Muskogee Lady Roughers showed the Tulsa Union Lady Redskins that this was a different team than the one that lost by 13 in Tulsa last month.

Muskogee, No. 8 in the Class 6A Okrankings.com poll, kept an even pace on the boards and connected on its shots in taking down No. 10 Union 73-64 at Ron Milam Gymnasium on Friday.

“I am very proud of the girls tonight,” said Muskogee coach Doyle Rowland. “We’ve been waiting on this one. They have dominated us over the years.”

It was Rowland’s first win against the Redskins in his four-year tenure. The Lady Roughers improved to 15-6, 8-4 in the Frontier Conference, while Union fell to 11-10 and 6-6.

Moreover, it completed a week of redemption games for MHS. The Lady Roughers atoned for a double-digit loss at Bixby on Tuesday, downing the team which will host the regional MHS will head to in two weeks.

“It’s coming towards the end of the season and we’ve never wanted to win so bad in our life,” said Alexus Wilson. ”That’s what we need, the heart to win every game.”

In the first half, the Lady Roughers controlled the boards with a 20-15 advantage. They also made their shots, converting 16 of 25 (64 percent) while the Lady Redskins hit on only 11 of 34 (34 percent) which led to a 37-26 advantage for the home team.

The third quarter was very similar as the Lady Roughers hit on 6 of 12 from the field (50 percent) while Union was 5 of 15 (33 percent) as Muskogee maintained its double-digit advantage 53-41 heading into the final stanza.

At the start of the fourth quarter, the Lady Redskins employed a half-court press and the Lady Roughers had no problems breaking through. The problems occurred once the ball got over the time line as MHS committed 12 of its 22 second-half turnovers while trying to take advantage of offensive numbers.

However, when the Lady Roughers were able to maintain control, the ball was usually in the hands of Wilson and the Lady Redskins were resorted to fouling her. All six of her points in the quarter came from the free-throw line.

“Somebody had to step up and take care of the ball,” Wilson said. “I just said ‘It’s going to be me’.”

Kelsey McClure led Muskogee with a game-high 25 points, one of four Lady Roughers to finish in double figures. Wilson had 19 points while Coco Epps and Chelsie Keys finished with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Imani Davis led Union with 21 points while Rye Griffis had 17 points and Brittany Hill 10.

Earlier in the season, the press gave the Lady Roughers fits. Friday, Rowland’s squad did not panic when the press came at them on Friday.

“(Union) tried every trick in the book,” Rowland said. “We knew it was coming. We feel we are now on our way.”



Boys:

Union 48, MHS 33

The Roughers played solid defense, holding the No. 1 team in Class 6A to 40 percent shooting (16-of-40) but could only convert 10 of 40 shots (25 percent) in the loss to the Redskins.

“Our kids fought hard,” said MHS head coach Lloyd Williams. “We just didn’t score the ball very well.

“If you had told me we were going to hold the No. 1 team in the state to 48 points, I’d had told you we were going to be in the game. We just couldn’t score.”

Anthony King led the Roughers with 11 points, the only Rougher to finish in double figures as Muskogee dropped to 8-12 on the season, 2-10 in conference. Union had two players in double figures with J.C. Hartzler pouring in a game-high 19 points while Yuri Hager had 10 points to run its record to 21-0, 11-0 in league play.

“We played hard all four quarters, just like coach has been telling us,” King said. “We just got outrebounded and they turned that into second-chance points.”

Union held a slim 13-9 lead after the first quarter but saw the Roughers score the first five points of the second quarter to grab a 14-13 lead at the 5:12 mark. That would be the only time MHS would be on top as the Redskins would close out the stanza with an 11-1 run to take a 24-15 lead into the locker room.

The third quarter saw no change in the scoring advantage as Muskogee trailed heading into the fourth quarter 34-25. While Union was only able to make four of its 12 shots in the fourth quarter, the Roughers made only three of 13 shots and two free throws as they saw the margin expand to the final 15-point deficit.

“We have to get our guys to fight from beginning to end like they did tonight,” Williams said. “If we do that, we are going to have success because we are going to score better than we did tonight.”

Muskogee’s home finales are Tuesday against Jenks. For the boys, it will be a preview of their first-round meeting in regionals.