Lady Sandites Beat Stillwater, Advance to Area Playoffs

For the ninth time in the past decade, the Lady Sandite basketball team is advancing to the Area playoffs Thursday night at Sapulpa at 7:30 p.m.

6A-East No. 6 Sand Springs (17-8) is scheduled to play its fourth game of the year against No. 7 Owasso (13-11) after the two teams finished as runners-up in their regions.

The winner of that game will play the loser of No. 1 Booker T. Washington (19-5) vs. No. 5 Broken Arrow (17-8) Saturday at 1:30 p.m. for a ticket to the State Tournament.

Sand Springs won 58-43 against No. 11 Stillwater (8-16) in the first round of the Norman regional on Thursday with three Lady Sandites in double digits. Hailey Jackson scored 19, Sakauri Wilson scored 15, and Kiaryn Taylor added 12.

On Saturday, however, No. 3 Norman (19-4) extended its win streak to nine with a 63-36 victory.

The host Tigers went on a 14-0 run to end the first quarter up 16-3 and though the rest of the game was closer, the Sandites could never muster a comeback attempt

“There were a lot of things that we missed tonight - a lot of opportunities that we let go,” said head coach Josh Berry.

“If you want to win, you’ve got to make those plays in these games.”

Sand Springs struggled with accuracy, shooting only 26% in the field, and also faced a distinct size advantage as the average Norman starter had three inches on the average Sandite starter.

“We showed it earlier in the year, beating some good teams,” said Berry. “When we play together we can beat anybody in the state.”

“But when we don’t, and we play like today where we’re not in one accord, then we can be beat by anybody.”

The team initially funneled its offense through Jackson as the six-foot senior took seven shots before any other Sandite attempted one. The Tigers often two-manned her in the paint, however, and Jackson didn’t get hot till the second half when she scored 12 of her game-best 17.

Wilson got rolling in the second quarter, where she scored all eight of her points, but was shut down in the second half.

By halftime the Tigers led 30-13 and pushed their advantage to 45-21 entering the fourth.

Nessa Begay and Kayla Jones scored 16 to lead Norman, followed by Keeley Parks with 12.

“We missed a lot of transition baskets and transition opportunities that we had early on and it just dug us in a hole,” said Berry.

“Defensively we missed some things and we just dug that hole too early and it’s hard to get out of that with this group. And we shot the ball bad. We couldn’t buy a bucket.”

On Thursday the Owasso Rams will be looking to snap an 11-game losing streak against the Sandites that dates back to 2018. The Sandites won the first three meetings this year 51-49, 48-47, and 45-36.

“That’s a good team, well coached,” said Berry. “We’ve got to go out there and play because this is a brand new game and a brand new season. Win or go home time.”

“We’ve just got to relax, have fun, enjoy each other, trust each other, believe in each other.”

Boys

The 6A-East No. 11 boys (10-13) suffered a 61-48 defeat against No. 6 Moore (17-6) in the Regional knockout round Friday at Bixby.

The Lions went on a 14-0 run to end the first quarter up 21-7 and the Sandites never recovered despite winning the fourth quarter 20-10.

Alijah Roper scored a career-high 23 points to lead all scorers but was the only Sandite in double digits.

Moore was led by Tristan Hankins with 19, Darian Grant with 15, and Malachi Lee with 11.

The Sandites have missed out on making it to Area the last two seasons but have made it past the first round of Regionals 7 out of the last 10 seasons and are poised for success next year as they return 3 of 5 starters and 65% of their scoring power.