#14 Lady Sandites drop the hammer on Union

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By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

The #14 Lady Sandite Varsity squad (5-2) had little trouble in defeating the unranked Union Redskins (1-6) in their first game of the new year. Before the break, Sand Springs dropped a heart-breaker to #6 Sapulpa (5-0) after leading their rivals for nearly the entirety of the game. There was no doubt who the better team was in this match-up.

Four Lady Sandites doubled Tuesday night, including Sydney Pennington who led with 15 points, and Gloria Mutiri who shot a season-high 10.

The team consists of a lot of young talent, starting only 1 senior and 3 freshmen.

Kierra McGee drew first blood for the Redskins, but Cierra Scott, Holly Kersgieter, Isabella Regalado, and Gloria Mutiri scored back-to-back to claim an early 9-2 lead before giving up points to Kiara Denton and Taylor Malham. Pennington got in the game with her first field goal of the night to snag an 11-8 first quarter lead.

The lopsided scoring was even greater in the second period, which saw Mutiri score 6 of her team's 15 points for a 26-19 halftime lead. 

Rather than being comfortable with their lead, the Sandites proceeded to dominate Union defensively and held them to a mere 8 points against the Sandites' 14. Destiney Johnson had her breakout quarter, going on a run of 6 points to contribute to a 40-27 lead.

The fourth quarter was the highest-scoring period of the night for both teams, but once more the Sandites won it 19-12 and wrapped up their third 20+ point win of the season, 59-39.

The JV girls (2-1) started hot and led till moments before the fourth, but were ravaged in a polar-opposite second half for a stunning 37-27 defeat.

Selena Hitchcock dropped a pair of threes in the first quarter, Kimi Presnell hit a three, and Jacie Taber added two to give the girls a bold 11-4 first quarter lead that looked to be the opening to a slaughter. The second quarter was closer, but there was still no denying that it was the Sandites stealing the show as the home team rode a 21-10 lead into the half.

Whatever the Union coaches said to their team at half time worked. 

The Lady Redskins scored 13 unanswered points before Hitchcock got the Sandites back on the scoreboard with their lone basket of the third period. Union had taken the lead, 24-23.

Amari Grant took the lead back briefly with the first field goal of the fourth, but only Taber would score another. Maddie Ward tacked on a free throw to end the game, but it wasn't enough to overcome the massive deficit Union had stuck them with. 

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.

Union JV comes from behind to stun Lady Sandites

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By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

In a game with polar opposite halves, the JV Lady Sandites led Union 21-10 after the first half, then lost 37-27 after Union went on streaks of 13 unanswered points in the third period and 11 in the fourth.  

Selena Hitchcock led the Sandites with 8 points, matched by Union's Tyrzah Stinson. Kimi Presnall posted 6, Jessica Collins 5, Amari Grant 4, Jacie Taber 3, and Maddy Ward 1.  

#11 Sandites suffer first loss to #2 Carl Albert; Savage scores 21

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By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

Photo: Morgan Miller, Staff

The Sand Springs Sandites (7-1) boys' basketball team suffered its first loss of the season at the Ardmore Invitational, bringing an end to one of the best starts in school history. After ravaging Greenhill Prep 73-54 and pulling away from 5A #5 Ardmore (6-4) for a 74-60 win, the Charles Page team found themselves in the finals against the #2 team in 5A. Carl Albert High School (7-0), from Midwest City, is one of only two undefeated teams remaining in 5A and proved their skill on New Year's Eve with a 60-47 win over Sand Springs.

With the toppling of Sand Springs, only #2 Edmond North (6-0) and #3 Midwest City (9-0) remain undefeated in 6A. Twenty teams remain undefeated state-wide. 

The Sandites went into the tournament ranked 14th in the class, and despite the loss, have been promoted to 11th as of Monday. 

Sophomore Colt Savage scored a career-high 21 points, but the game-high went to Carl Albert's Trey Hopkins who ran up 25. The biggest problem in the game was Brooks Haddock being held to his lowest output since last season. The sophomore had averaged nearly 17 points-per-game up till then, but was held to his first single-digit game this season--in part due to a badly jammed thumb on his shooting hand. 

To add to the one-sided scoring, Mason Harrell contributed another 16 for Carl Albert, while Savage was the only Sandite to double. The Midwest City team's top-two outscored Sand Springs's top-four. 

The Sandites didn't go down without a fight, tying the game midway through the final period, but ultimately they were outdone by the Titans.

Savage and Haddock were named to the all-tournament team, and rightfully so. The two lead the Sandites in scoring by a landslide. Haddock sits at 123 points this season, Savage has 121, and the two's closest competitor is Kyle Keener with 93. 

Both the boys and the #14 Lady Sandites will return to action Tuesday night at Ed Dubie Fieldhouse as they take on the Union Redskins in a Frontier Valley Conference match-up. The Union girls are unranked with a 1-5 record, but the boys are #7 in 6A with a 4-2 record.

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.