Lady Sandite Basketball wins Frontier Valley Conference Championship

/ Bixby High School/

Sophomore Holly Kersgieter led all scorers with 17 points Friday night at Bixby. (Photo: Morgan Miller).

By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

CPHS 59 BHS 46

1Q Sand Springs 12-5
2Q Sand Springs 17-9
3Q Sand Springs 17-13
4Q Bixby 19-13

Scoring: (CPHS) Kersgieter 17, Johnson 14, McGee 13, Regalado 9, Pennington 6. (BHS) Tyree 16, Bittle 15, Myles 9, Fuhr 3, King 1, Stout 1, Brown 1.

(CPHS only)
Offensive Rebounds: McGee 3, Kersgieter 2, Pennington 1, Grant 1.
Defensive Rebounds: Kersgieter 3, Pennington 3, Taber 3, Johnson 2, Collins 2, Grant 2, McGee 1.
Steals: Pennington 3, Kersgieter 2, Johnson 2.
Assists: Johnson 3, McGee 3, Pennington 2, Collins 1, Kersgieter 1.
Blocks: Kersgieter 2, Regalado 2, Pennington 1, Johnson 1.
Fouls: Regalado 5, Kersgieter 3, Taber 3, Pennington 2, Johnson 2, Grant 1, Boaz 1.

The No. 3 ranked Charles Page High School girls basketball team (20-1) pulled off a nearly perfect regular season to wrap up their first Frontier Valley Conference Championship in recent memory. Three Lady Sandites doubled in a 59-46 victory at Bixby to clench the title with a 13-1 record. The lone blemish on the girls' season was a 61-57 loss at No. 9 Owasso when starting center Gloria Mutiri was out with an ankle injury. Mutiri was absent from this game as well, playing club volleyball out of town, but it didn't affect the girls this time.

The girls took first place at both the Bishop Kelley Invitational and the Coffeyville Interstate Classic, and earned the right to host a Regional Tournament. Unfortunately the Ed Dubie Field House sustained water damage and the Regional was moved to Broken Arrow. The first game will be played this upcoming Thursday at 8:00 p.m. against Stillwater (5-18).

Sophomore Holly Kersgieter led all scorers Friday night at Bixby with 17 points, followed by Destiny Johnson with 14 and Kierra McGee with 13 for the Sandites. Sarah Tyree was top-dog for the Lady Spartans with 16, closely followed by Maddie Bittle with 15. This was Kersgieter's seventh time leading her team this season.

The visitors got off to a fast start as Johnson scored the opening points with a layup and free throw. Tyree retaliated in similar form to tied it at 3-3, but the Sandites took the lead from there and never looked back. McGee hit a three-pointer, Johnson added back-to-back twos, then Kersgieter scored her first points of the night to make it 12-3. Tyree had the final say of the first quarter with a layup and was the only Lady Spartan to score in the stanza.

Sand Springs doubled down on their host in the second quarter as Kersgieter posted eight points, aided by Johnson with five, McGee with two, and Sydney Pennington with two. Bittle and Dariann Myles both got in on the action for Bixby, but they trailed 29-14 going into halftime.

The third quarter was less of a blowout, though the Sandites did increase their lead to 46-27. The Spartans finally caught a break in the final stretch as Coach Dustin Morrow ran the bench on the Spartans. The home team scored the final eleven points of the game and won the period 19-13.