Lady Sandites Upset at Union 49-47

Fresh off a tournament high, the Lady Sandites hit a district hiccup Tuesday night at Q. Hammons Arena, dropping a 49-47 upset to Union.

No. 6 Charles Page High School (10-5, 4-2) never once led and trailed by as much as 15 points midway through the second quarter before rallying to tie it on a three-point play from Aaliyah Simone with 1:30 to play.

The RedHawks (9-6, 4-3) played keep-away for the final minute and cashed in a pair of free throws to survive the comeback.

“They’re a good team and they might have had some fresher legs than us coming into this and it showed the first half,” said head coach Josh Berry.

“The girls fought valiantly to get back into the game. We had a chance to win it and we didn’t. We had a few things not go our way, but that is what it is and when you’re on the road, that’s going to happen.”

Sand Springs struggled with accuracy, shooting only 23.6% in the first half to the RedHawks’ 40.6% while also struggling with fouls and rebounds.

The girls trailed 15-8 after the first quarter and a four-point play by JaMiyah Woodard gave Union its biggest lead at 25-11.

Sakauri Wilson stole a rebound away from Esme’ Smith and put it up for two with 4:56 left in the second quarter to slow the Union tide and the Sandites cut the deficit to 32-21 at halftime.

Taiona Morris drained a three to open the third quarter and the Sandites trimmed their gap to 42-36 entering the fourth.

Foul trouble limited the Sandites’ defensive aggression in the fourth quarter as both Hope Bump and Wilson drew their fourth fouls.

Even so, they were able to get it back to a tie game. Butler drained a second three-pointer and Simone scored off a steal and was fouled by Whitney Smith, hitting the and-one to make it 47-47.

Isabella McSwain ran a minute off the clock before attempting a layup with 10 seconds remaining. Esme’ Smith rebounded for a putback try and also missed, but a foul was called and she made the first of her two free throws for the lead.

The second shot was no good, but Brooke Bettis rebounded, picked up a foul from Wilson, and hit the second of her two free throws with 2.4 seconds remaining. Esme’ Smith picked off the inbound lob at half court to secure the upset.

“We’re still a young bunch with the exception of really two players,” said Berry. “You’ve got a couple of freshmen, you’ve got some new faces in there, so any time you have that, you’re not going to have consistency.

“But what has been consistent is this team’s effort level. So as long as that keeps up, we’re going to have chances, we’re going to stay in ball games and we’re going to be pretty good come late February.”

While the Sandites struggled offensively with one of their worst shooting performances of the season, their defense was its usual level of excellence with 12 takeaways and a season-best 10 blocks.

“Our defense gave us a lot of chances today,” said Berry. “We hit just enough shots. We didn’t hit a lot of them, but we hit just enough, we made just enough plays to give ourselves a chance but at the end of the day we weren’t physical, we weren’t tough, we didn’t box out very well, but those are all things you can correct and those are things we will correct.”

Simone, a freshman, had the best offensive performance for the team, shooting 4-of-8 in the field for 10 points to go with 3 steals and 4 rebounds.

“She’s a special player,” said Berry. “She’s got a chance to be a big-time player. She’s just got to work every day, get better, and keep that up.”

Wilson and Morris also had 10 points apiece. Wilson had 5 assists; Bump had 7 points and 10 rebounds; and Butler had 8 points, 6 boards, and 5 blocks.

Berry wasn’t too concerned about the loss and was already focused on Friday’s district home game against No. 5 Owasso (13-3, 6-1).

“I’m not worried about it at all. We’ll bounce back, we’ll figure it out, and we’ll be ready to play…I don’t think we’ve been at home for about two months it seems like, so we’ll be back at home and we’ll be ready to go.”

Union 49 CPHS 47

1Q: Union 15-8.
2Q: Union 17-13.
3Q: CPHS 15-10.
4Q: CPHS 11-7.
Free Throws: Union 7-of-12, CPHS 6-of-11.
Field Goals: Union 19-of-56, CPHS 18-of-66.
Offensive Rebounds: Union 17, CPHS 9.
Defensive Rebounds: Union 24, CPHS 18.
Total Rebounds: Union 41, CPHS 27.
Steals: Union 3, CPHS 12.
Blocks: Union 3, CPHS 10.
Fouls: Union 11, CPHS 14.

Sand Springs Stats

Scoring: Wilson 10, Morris 10, Simone 10, Ti. Butler 8, Bump 7, Ta. Butler 2.
Offensive Rebounds: Bump 4, Wilson 1, Morris 1, Simone 1, Ti. Butler 1, Pearce 1.
Defensive Rebounds: Bump 6, Ti. Butler 5, Simone 3, Wilson 2, Ta. Butler 1, Pearce 1.
Total Rebounds: Bump 10, Ti. Butler 6, Simone 4, Wilson 3, Pearce 2, Morris 1, Ta. Butler 1.
Steals: Simone 3, Wilson 2, Bump 2, Morris 2, Ti. Butler 1, Ta. Butler 1.
Assists: Wilson 5, Bump 1, Simone 1.
Blocks: Ti. Butler 5, Bump 2, Wilson 1, Morris 1, Ta. Butler 1.
Fouls: Wilson 5, Bump 4, Morris 2, Ti. Butler 2, Simone 1.

Union Stats

Scoring: Woodard 16, W. Smith 10, E. Smith 10, A. Smith 5, Edwards 4, Bettis 3, McSwain 1.
Fouls: McSwain 4, W. Smith 2, Woodard 2, Bettis 1, A. Smith 1, Edwards 1.