Haddock, Keener lead #13 Sandites to third straight victory

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By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

Photo: Morgan Miller, Staff

For the third straight game, the Sandites pulled off the win with Brooks Haddock at the helm. 

The current Sandite of the Week scored 25 against Broken Arrow and 21 against Bartlesville last week. This time he scored 19, but he wasn't the only hero for the home team.

Junior Kyle Keener paced the Sandites with 14 points and 7 blocks and scored the first basket of the game for Sand Springs. Coincidentally, Keener wears jersey #33 and spent most of the night matched up against the Roughers' #33, Keondre' Davis.

Roger Lewis and Tavian Davis ran up an 8-2 lead for the #16 Muskogee Roughers (10-7) before Haddock was sent to the line and sank four free throws to narrow the score. 

The 9-6 Rougher lead would quickly evaporate in the second quarter, however, as the Sandites outscored their conference foe 13-4 for a solid 19-13 half-time break.

Muskogee wouldn't let things carry on like that for long, namely Tyreece Berry. 

Berry scored 16 in the third period alone with four three-pointers.

Keondre' and Tavian Davis kicked off the fourth with a pair of buckets to tie things up at 39. Haddock briefly took the lead back before Lewis sank a three to take the first Rougher lead since the second quarter.

The teams exchanged the lead as Keener and Keondre' Davis exchanged free throws. Mack Thompson sank a basket then went two-for-two from the line to make it 47-45 with 0:45 left. Colt Savage added two more with 0:19 left, but Tavian Davis hit a three for a one point deficit.

Finally, with 0:07.6 left, Haddock hit two freebies and the Sandite defense held strong for a 51-48 win. 

The Sandites (13-5) will next take on the #20 Bixby Spartans (9-9) Friday night at Homecoming. Sand Springs beat Bixby 50-45 in their season opener and are currently third in conference standings with a 7-3 record. 

The JV boys won their game 53-40 and improved to 4-6 for the season.

#20 Jenks Trojans upset #10 Sandites

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By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

The Charles Page High School varsity dribblers still hold their #10 ranking, but have been going in the opposite direction from where they started.  

After starting the season 7-0, the boys have given up four straight and gave up a close loss to the #20 Jenks Trojans whom they should have handled easily. 

The Sandites got on the board first with a layup by Arvionte Nichols, but TJ Washington shot three from three-point range, broken up by a Kyle Keener free throw, to make the score 9-3. Once more it would appear the Trojans were having difficulty at the score table, however, and the score was only updated to 7-3--a mistake that would not be corrected.  

The Trojan scoring frenzy continued till they had worked up a 22-9 first quarter lead.

The second quarter belonged to Sand Springs, however, as the Sandites found their mojo and doubled the home team 16-8 by half time. The visitors still trailed by 5 (three according to the scoreboard) but they were clearly on the up-and-up.  

The Sandites won the third quarter as well, but only by 12-11 and still trailed by four going into the final period.  

Both teams battled valiantly but ultimately it came down to a series of desperation fouls and the Trojans came out on top for a 53-48 finish with Washington sinking a pair of freebies for an incredible 28 point game high. 

Keener and Haddock both doubled but it was a shortage of rebounds that ultimately did the Sandites in.  

Jacob Garbey scores 21 in JV loss to Jenks

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By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

The JV Sandite boys got off to a great start against the Jenks junior Trojans Friday night at Frank Herald Stadium, battling back and forth before taking a 19-17 lead at the end of the first.

The boys led by as much as 27-19 at one point before the home team went on a scoring streak nearly catching up 29-27 at the half.  

At some point during halftime the score was changed to 27-27 and the opposing teams were unable to reach a consensus on the score and the home team had their way. 

Not that those two points mattered in the end however, as the Trojans out scored the Sandites 23-8 in the third with 16 unanswered points before Josh Taber sank a pair of free throws.

Riding a 13 point advantage into the final period, the Trojans added another 11 to finish 61-44, or 61-42 according to the scoreboard. 

The boys fall to 1-5 on the season, despite a great performance from Jacob Garbey who scored an outstanding 21 points. 

Union JV hammers Sandites

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By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

The Union Redskin JV basketball team hammered the Sandites 58-40 in the first game of 2016.  

Size was a major factor as the average Union player had 3-6 inches on the Sandites, making rebounds few and far between for the home team.  

Jacob Garby was the lone SandIte to double, scoring 11. Meanwhile Union's Michiah McQuarters led with 13, followed by Jordan Flood with 11.

Union JV hammers Sandites

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By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

The Union Redskin JV basketball team hammered the Sandites 58-40 in the first game of 2016.  

Size was a major factor as the average Union player had 3-6 inches on the Sandites, making rebounds few and far between for the home team.  

Jacob Garby was the lone SandIte to double, scoring 11. Meanwhile Union's Michiah McQuarters led with 13, followed by Jordan Flood with 11.

Haddock scores 26 in Sandites' defeat of #5 Ardmore

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By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

Photo: Morgan Miller

The Ardmore Holiday Invitational has been a mess of delays, but it hasn't slowed down the Sandite scoring effort.

The whole tournament was pushed back 24 hours due to the blizzards, flooding, tornadoes, and whatever else the Oklahoma weather was throwing at us Sunday and Monday. Then, the Sandites' opening game against Greenhill Prep (12-3) was delayed a further two hours Tuesday night, and Wednesday night's game against the tournament hosts was delayed an hour and a half.

Tuesday night's game against the Dallas-area private school was a back and forth effort till midway through the fourth quarter when the Sandites finally pulled away for a 73-54 win and a 6-0 record. 

At halftime the lead was a mere 36-33.

Three Sandites scored in the double digits--the same three that lead the team overall for the season. Colt Savage led all scorers with 18 points, tying the career-high record he set last season. Not far behind him was fellow sophomore Brooks Haddock with 16 and Kyle Keener with 15.

Greenhill also had three double-digit scorers. Kreitling and Bryant both scored 13 followed by Woods with 11. 

The action continued Wednesday night as the Sandites took on the hosting Ardmore team who had just defeated Western Heights 88-72 the night before. The #5 team in 5A had a 5-3 record going into the game, and Sand Springs was out to spoil it.

Sand Springs got on the board first with a three-pointer from Mack Thompson who tied his season-high with ten points. The two teams were back and forth in scoring, but the Tigers led for most of the first period before Sand Springs began to tie it up towards the end of the quarter. 

Finally, Kyle Keener sank a two and added a free-throw to retake the lead, 19-18. It would only last a moment, however, as Carlos Coppage would nail a three at the buzzer. 

The two teams traded the lead with each of the first three shots of the second period before Thompson, Keener, and Colt Savage scored back-to-back to give their team some wiggle room. 

The Sandites trailed by as much as 4 in the first period, then led by as much as 7 in the second before a sloppy finish gave the Tigers three-straight turnovers to narrow the game to 37-36 going into the half. 

The Sandites missed 15 field goals in the first half and gave up 14 turnovers.

Whatever Coach Savage said to them at half time seemed to work, because the boys only gave up 7 more turnovers in the second half. 

The better offensive effort helped Sand Springs to outscore the Tigers 16-11 in the third, but the beginning of the fourth belonged to Ardmore who tied things up at 55 halfway through the fourth. 

Finally, Sand Springs pulled away, scoring 19 points in the last 4 minutes to ice the cake for a 74-60 win.

Free-throws seemed to be the Tigers' kryptonite as the home team shot 13 of 25 from the line compared to the Sandites' 19 of 26. Ardmore did lead in turnovers, however, giving up the ball only 13 times to the Sandites' 21. 

Brooks Haddock led all scorers with a season-high 26 points, chased by Ardmore's Marvin Johnson with 21. All together, Sand Springs had 4 players in double digits, while Ardmore only managed 2. Jacob Taber also scored a personal season-best with 5 points.

Sand Springs (7-0) will play in the tournament championship Thursday at 2:30.