Deke Thompson Has Career Night as Sandites Throttle KIPP 104-36

A career-night from Deke Thompson III was just the icing on the cake of the Sandites’ 104-36 beatdown of KIPP (1-10) in the final round of the Veterans Arena Invitational Saturday night at Tulsa Memorial.

The junior standout went off for 28 points, 11 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 assists to help Sand Springs (4-3) to the highest-scoring game and largest margin of victory in the Eric Savage era.

“My mindset every game is to go kill, go get a win,” said Thompson. My teammates did a really good job of finding me when I was open and when I had a hot hand, they did a really good job of coming back to me, so I’m thankful for them.”

The Sandites never trailed, jumping out to a 21-2 lead behind four first-quarter treys from Thompson. They led 29-9 after the first quarter and 51-15 at halftime.

”We played great defense together tonight,” said Thompson. “Savage made it known that we needed to guard up from the start, because the first few games we came in a little lackadaisical.”

The Sandites trailed Crossover Prep 26-22 on Friday before rebounding to a 98-47 win. But on Saturday they piled onto the Bulldogs hard and fast and never let off the gas.

Sand Springs had several impressive runs on the night, with double-digit scoring streaks of 18, 12, 11, 14, and 11 while smothering the Bulldogs defensively with 15 takeaways.

“I feel like whenever we want to play defense, we’re a really good, defensively sound team,” said Thompson. “We walked into that game (yesterday) knowing we were going to blow them out and it almost messed with us.”

Thompson hit his double-double just a minute and 25 seconds into the second half and didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter.

All 15 Sandites saw action and 14 made their way into the scorebook. Kason Evans had a career-high 17 points and 7 rebounds off the bench, followed by Khalil Allen with 10 points and 7 boards.

“We all got hot,” said Thompson. “It was fun. Our goal was to come in and go 3-0 in this tournament.”

Sand Springs is now on a four-game win streak following an 0-3 start to the season.

“We’re not even close to our full potential yet,” said Thompson. “Blake (Johnson) going down obviously hurt us to start. It slowed us down a little bit. We’re working to get our guys out of foul trouble. As we start the winter practices and finishing this season, I think we’ll get to rolling even better than we are now.”

The Sandites went undefeated for the sixth time in the festival’s eight-year history and for the second year in a row.

“I enjoy this tournament for a number of reasons,” said Savage, who coached at Memorial for 12 seasons before coming to Sand Springs.

“One, getting to come back and be around some familiar places and people and a lot of friends, but it also provides an early season opportunity to play a lot of guys in your roster.”

“Those first three games of the season, we only went seven or eight deep really. It’s just important to these guys to get some varsity action in a good atmosphere. It’s not every year we come over here and get three wins and this year we were able to.”

Sand Springs will return to action after the new year at the East Central Class in Ada. KIPP will play at the Idabel Winter Classic after Christmas.

CPHS 104 KIPP 36

1Q: CPHS 29-9.
2Q: CPHS 22-6.
3Q: CPHS 30-7.
4Q: CPHS 23-14.
Free Throws: CPHS 9-of-14, KIPP 7-of-17.
Field Goals: CPHS 43-of-79, KIPP 12-of-46.
Offensive Rebounds: CPHS 24, KIPP 5.
Defensive Rebounds: CPHS 28, KIPP 13.
Total Rebounds: CPHS 52, KIPP 18.
Steals: CPHS 15, KIPP 4.
Blocks: CPHS 2, KIPP 3.
Fouls: CPHS 16, KIPP 12.

Sand Springs Statistics

Points: Thompson 28, Evans 17, Allen 10, Kelly 9, Johnson 8, Fueshko 7, Roper 6, Betchan 4, Young 4, Collins 3, Shope 2, K. Smith 2, T. Smith 2, Ketcher 2.
Offensive Rebounds: Thompson 5, Evans 4, Allen 4, Johnson 3, Roper 1, Kelly 1, Mitchell 1, Shope 1, Fueshko 1, K. Smith 1, Ketcher 1, Collins 1.
Defensive Rebounds: Thompson 6, Allen 3, Evans 3, Shope 3, Kelly 2, Fueshko 2, Ketcher 2, Young 2, Johnson 1, Mitchell 1, K. Smith 1, T. Smith 1, Collins 1.
Total Rebounds: Thompson 11, Allen 7, Evans 7, Johnson 4, Shope 4, Fueshko 3, Kelly 3, Ketcher 3, Collins 2, Young 2, Mitchell 2, K. Smith 2, T. Smith 1, Roper 1.

KIPP Statistics

Points: Jones 14, Reynolds 8, Wallace 4, Ellis 4, Becknell 2, Payne 2, Taylor 2.
Fouls: Parker 4, Wallace 4, Taylor 3, Payne 1.