Sandite Basketball takes a beating at Jenks

JD Dickson goes for a layup against Jenks. Photo by Charity Wickett.

This story was originally written by Scott Emigh for the Tulsa World.

If the No. 3 Jenks boys’ basketball team (4-0 overall, 2-0 conference) was looking for a statement win, it found it Tuesday against No. 16 Sand Springs (2-2, 0-2). The Trojans dealt Eric Savage the biggest defeat of his Sand Springs career, 84-35, in a game that saw little drop off in second or third-string action.

“Eric is the best in our business at managing games,” said Jenks head coach Clay Martin. “We were trying to create a tempo as early as we could, because he’s so good at slowing the game down for his team.”

The Sandites have a reputation for playing gritty, low-scoring games against higher ranked opponents. In the last meeting between the two teams, the unranked Sandites beat the No. 8 Trojans 43-40 in last year’s Regional playoffs.

“We have a lot of respect for him and that program,” said Martin. “We were just lucky to get a tempo going and create some run-outs early, which got the momentum going.”

The Trojans were fresh off a tournament title from Tahlequah, where they beat Tahlequah Sequoyah 90-19, then edged out Muskogee 59-52 and Moore 60-58 in overtime. 

“All the credit in the world to our guys,” said Martin. “Coming off a big tournament win, you come back and we were wondering how we were going to respond. I think with the experience we have and the leadership we have on the floor, we were ready to go.”

Chase Martin led all scorers with 15 points, followed by Benjamin Averitt with 13, and Deke Thompson with 11. 

Thompson scored all of his points from the bench, in the fourth quarter, and the backups accounted for 33 in the lopsided affair.

“Obviously when you’ve got a little lead, the rim gets bigger,” said Martin. “I was really proud to see a lot of our guys who don’t always get a lot of minutes get in there and have some opportunity.”

The Trojans will try to ride that momentum into the Tournament of Champions on December 27th with a first-round game against 2A No. 2 Cashion (1-0).

Sand Springs will take three weeks off before traveling to No. 12 Booker T. Washington (2-0, 2-0) after the new year.

Jenks 84 CPHS 35
1Q: Jenks 17-7.
2Q: Jenks 22-9.
3Q: Jenks 23-12.
4Q: Jenks 22-7.
Free Throws: Jenks 7-of-10, CPHS 4-of-13.
Field Goals: Jenks 33-of-62, CPHS 13-of-47.
Offensive Rebounds: Jenks 11, CPHS 12.
Defensive Rebounds: Jenks 22, CPHS 18.
Total Rebounds: Jenks 33, CPHS 30.
Steals: Jenks 7, CPHS 2.
Blocks: Jenks 2, CPHS 1.
Fouls: Jenks 11, CPHS 13.

Scoring: (Jenks) Martin 15, Averitt 13, Thompson 11, Tata 9, Golightly 8, Smith 8, Simmons 7, Wilkins 6, Bacon 4, Coffey 3. (CPHS) Dickson 6, Oakley 6, Shope 6, Clark 5, Askew 5, Kelly 5, Johnson 1, Hendricks 1.