Sandite Basketball: Friday's Games at Owasso Snowed Out, Muskogee Games Rescheduled

This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

The 6A-East No. 4 Charles Page High School girls’ basketball team (13-3 overall, 6-2 overall) is headed for a busy week at home after taking a week off due to snow. 

After a 38-34 upset of No. 2 Union (12-4, 6-2) Tuesday, February 1st, at the UMAC, the Sandites had their Friday night game at Owasso canceled, giving them an opportunity to rest up before a triple-header week.

In addition to games against No. 13 Jenks (5-9, 2-6) on Tuesday and No. 7 Booker T. Washington (8-9, 5-3) on Friday, the Sandites will also squeeze in a Thursday night makeup game against No. 15 Muskogee (2-9, 1-6), and all three games will be at home.

The Muskogee game was originally scheduled for January 18th, but was canceled by the Roughers due to the Omicron surge. The athletic departments are still working to reschedule the Owasso game.

The Lady Sandites previously won 64-30 against Jenks and 60-40 against the Hornets, but have yet to face the Roughers this season.

In their last outing the Sandites knocked off the top team in the conference to improve to second in the Frontier Valley standings.

Union managed to hold Sand Springs’ leading scorer Journey Armstead without a field goal, but the senior star did her damage at the free-throw line instead, shooting 10-of-13 with 8 points in the fourth quarter.

The Sandites won a war of attrition against the RedHawks, taking advantage of three foul-outs in the final two minutes.

“I just love it for my girls,” said head coach Josh Berry. “They went out there and fought hard.”

“They’re going out there against a well-coached team in Union,” said Berry. “But you know, we’re a good team too. So to be able to finally come out with a win against one of those top teams shows that we are a top team as well.”

The Sandites had previously lost three of their last four games against top-ranked foes Edmond North, Bixby, and Sapulpa. 

“I think that’s huge,” said Berry. “I think they responded, they learned from some of the losses that we had, and they bonded together.”

“We had some big contributions with Journey being in foul trouble and some people stepped up,” said Berry. “That’s what you need to advance and survive from here on out.”

Hailey Jackson and Armstead scored 10 apiece for the Sandites, while Layne Kirkendoll finished with 6 points and 10 rebounds, and Sakauri Wilson added 7 points.

No. 1 Bixby currently leads the conference with a 45-34 win against Sand Springs. There’s no rematch scheduled this season, so the Sandites will need Bixby to stumble in at least one of their five remaining conference games for a shot at the FVC title.

Boys Basketball

The No. 14 Sandites (5-11, 1-7) suffered a 79-38 loss at the hands of the No. 7 RedHawks (9-8, 5-4) on Tuesday despite a 12-point effort from JD Dickson, and the schedule doesn’t get much easier this week.

With No. 2 Jenks (14-4, 7-2) coming to town on Tuesday and No. 1 Booker T. Washington (16-1, 8-1) visiting on Friday, the Sandites’ best chance at picking up a win will be in a rescheduled meeting with No. 11 Muskogee (4-8, 2-5) Thursday night at the Ed Dubie Field House.