Sandite Basketball takes a beating at Jenks

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This story was originally written by Scott Emigh for the Tulsa World.

If the No. 3 Jenks boys’ basketball team (4-0 overall, 2-0 conference) was looking for a statement win, it found it Tuesday against No. 16 Sand Springs (2-2, 0-2). The Trojans dealt Eric Savage the biggest defeat of his Sand Springs career, 84-35, in a game that saw little drop off in second or third-string action.

“Eric is the best in our business at managing games,” said Jenks head coach Clay Martin. “We were trying to create a tempo as early as we could, because he’s so good at slowing the game down for his team.”

The Sandites have a reputation for playing gritty, low-scoring games against higher ranked opponents. In the last meeting between the two teams, the unranked Sandites beat the No. 8 Trojans 43-40 in last year’s Regional playoffs.

“We have a lot of respect for him and that program,” said Martin. “We were just lucky to get a tempo going and create some run-outs early, which got the momentum going.”

The Trojans were fresh off a tournament title from Tahlequah, where they beat Tahlequah Sequoyah 90-19, then edged out Muskogee 59-52 and Moore 60-58 in overtime. 

“All the credit in the world to our guys,” said Martin. “Coming off a big tournament win, you come back and we were wondering how we were going to respond. I think with the experience we have and the leadership we have on the floor, we were ready to go.”

Chase Martin led all scorers with 15 points, followed by Benjamin Averitt with 13, and Deke Thompson with 11. 

Thompson scored all of his points from the bench, in the fourth quarter, and the backups accounted for 33 in the lopsided affair.

“Obviously when you’ve got a little lead, the rim gets bigger,” said Martin. “I was really proud to see a lot of our guys who don’t always get a lot of minutes get in there and have some opportunity.”

The Trojans will try to ride that momentum into the Tournament of Champions on December 27th with a first-round game against 2A No. 2 Cashion (1-0).

Sand Springs will take three weeks off before traveling to No. 12 Booker T. Washington (2-0, 2-0) after the new year.

Jenks 84 CPHS 35
1Q: Jenks 17-7.
2Q: Jenks 22-9.
3Q: Jenks 23-12.
4Q: Jenks 22-7.
Free Throws: Jenks 7-of-10, CPHS 4-of-13.
Field Goals: Jenks 33-of-62, CPHS 13-of-47.
Offensive Rebounds: Jenks 11, CPHS 12.
Defensive Rebounds: Jenks 22, CPHS 18.
Total Rebounds: Jenks 33, CPHS 30.
Steals: Jenks 7, CPHS 2.
Blocks: Jenks 2, CPHS 1.
Fouls: Jenks 11, CPHS 13.

Scoring: (Jenks) Martin 15, Averitt 13, Thompson 11, Tata 9, Golightly 8, Smith 8, Simmons 7, Wilkins 6, Bacon 4, Coffey 3. (CPHS) Dickson 6, Oakley 6, Shope 6, Clark 5, Askew 5, Kelly 5, Johnson 1, Hendricks 1.

Sand Springs Girls' Basketball throttles Jenks 64-30 on the road

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This story was originally written by Scott Emigh for the Sand Springs Leader.

Jenks hung tough for a half, but the Sand Springs girls’ basketball team opened the floodgates after intermission.

Class 6A No. 11 Charles Page High School (4-0 overall, 2-0 conference) outscored the home team 42 to 18 in the second half and cruised to a 64-30 win against No. 19 Jenks (2-3, 1-1) Tuesday night at the Frank Herald Field House.

Three Lady Sandites scored in double digits as the visitors secured their 16th consecutive win against Jenks. Journey Armstead led all scorers with 20 points, followed by Hailey Jackson with 13 and Sakauri Wilson with 10.

Taiona Morris scored 8 points, Layne Kirkendoll added seven points and ten rebounds from the bench, and Avery Tanner scored 6.

“I think this year we’ve been able to get a lot more help and a lot of players are stepping up and getting a lot more confidence,” said Sandites head coach Josh Berry.

The Sandites held their opponents to single digits in all four quarters and came away with 14 steals and three blocks in a dominant defensive effort.

“I think that’s what we’ve got to do is just hang our hat on the defense,” said Berry. “As long as we keep playing defense and they keep sharing the ball, and other players keep getting aggressive, we’ve got a good chance of being pretty good.”

Jill Twiehaus scored 14 points to lead the Trojans, who will take three weeks off before traveling to 5A No. 2 Sapulpa (3-2, 1-1). 

Sand Springs will travel to the Tampa Bay Christmas Invitational on December 29th with a first-round game against Fort Myers, Florida. 

“Of course we’re going down there to compete,” said Berry. “First we want to go down there and take care of business, but we want to have some fun. It’s about family, and it’s about being together. It’s a chance for us to go down there and relax and have some fun over the holidays and enjoy each other.”

In junior varsity action the Trojans won 44-40. Abigaile Martin scored 15 points to lead the Sandites.

CPHS 64 Jenks 30
1Q: CPHS 11-6.
2Q: CPHS 11-6.
3Q: CPHS 25-9.
4Q: CPHS 17-9.
Free Throws: CPHS 13-of-16, Jenks 11-of-13.
Field Goals: CPHS 23-of-58, Jenks 9-of-46.
Offensive Rebounds: CPHS 19, Jenks 12.
Defensive Rebounds: CPHS 22, Jenks 13.
Total Rebounds: CPHS 41, Jenks 25.
Steals: CPHS 14, Jenks 5.
Blocks: CPHS 3, Jenks 5.
Fouls: CPHS 16, Jenks 13.

Scoring: (CPHS) Armstead 20, Jackson 13, Wilson 10, T. Morris 8, Kirkendoll 7, Tanner 6. (Jenks) Twiehaus 14, Forgione 7, Brown 4, Luciano 2, Simpson 2, Aeschleman 1.

Lady Sandite Basketball sweeps first three games in dominant fashion

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The Charles Page High School girls basketball team is off to a hot start on the year, winning its first three games by an average of 42 points per outing. 

Ranked No. 15 in Class 6A, the Sandites easily handled Owasso 54-37 in the season-opener, then pummeled Northwest Classen 90-26 and Tulsa Central 54-8 at the Golden Days Hoop Festival.

Senior star Journey Armstead scored 20 points with five steals and four rebounds to power the Sandites to their seventh straight win against the Rams. 

Leyshia Morris, Hailey Jackson, Taiona Morris, and Sakauri Wilson each contributed 8 points apiece for the Sandites in a balanced first-string effort, and Avery Tanner scored 2. 

“That's what we're going to need for us to be really good,” said Sandites coach Josh Berry. “We have to have that. We can't rely on one or two people to get us there. I talk to all of them about that, being ready, staying aggressive, and spreading the wealth around.”

Sand Springs won the junior varsity game 40-36 behind a 15-point effort from Abby Martin. Fayth Walker scored 12, Kiaryn Taylor scored 6, Patience Pearce scored 4, Kadence Bentley scored 2, and Tay’ja Butler scored 1.

On Thursday the girls were led by Armstead with 22 points and Jackson with 20. Taylor scored 11, Leyshia Morris scored 10, Walker had 7, Wilson and Taiona Morris scored 6, Avery Tanner had 4, and Layne Kirkendoll and Patience Pearce scored 2. 

Friday’s game against Yukon was canceled, so the game against Central was moved up from Saturday and the Sandites took a 52-0 lead early in the fourth quarter before the Braves finally found their way onto the scoreboard.

Jackson led all scorers with 15 points and six rebounds, followed by Armstead with 14 points, 8 rebounds, and six assists. Kirkendoll collected 11 rebounds and scored four points from the bench.

Wilson and Taylor scored 5, Tanner had 4, Leyshia Morris scored 3, and Pearce and Taiona Morris scored 2 each. 

The Lady Sandites will get their first ranked test Tuesday at No. 17 Jenks (2-2, 1-0) in a conference battle. The Sandites have won their last 15 games against the Trojans. 

Sandite Wrestling places 10th at Perry, Keystone Kids crown 9 champs at Coweta

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The Charles Page High School wrestling team took tenth place Saturday at the prestigious Perry Tournament of Champions, placing higher than five ranked teams, despite being unranked themselves.

Mitchell Smith placed fourth at 145, David Ritchey placed fifth at 106, Carter Goodman was fifth at 160, and Ethan White took sixth at 182. 

The Sandites are still without returning State qualifiers Blake Jones and Mason Harris due to football injuries, and Brooks Dudley also had to injury default after a close loss in the quarterfinals.

Sand Springs will return to action Tuesday, December 14th with a conference road dual at 5A No. 11 Sapulpa (2-0).

The Highway 97 Rivalry dual was canceled last year due to COVID-19, but the Chieftains haven’t beaten Sand Springs since 2013. 

The Keystone Kids Wrestling Club competed at Coweta Saturday and brought back nine gold medals.

Maddox Pope, Samuel Moore, Kasen McAffrey, Legend Dentis, Kayden Worthington, Jase Crain, Collin Randall, Mylum Ache V, and Ryder Black all won their divisions.

Rylan Hamby, Tanner Copeland, Wes Wilson, Carter Luce, Ozzie Ache, JJ Baker, Seth Brown, Weston Roberts, Jet Epperley, Claude Treat, and Kydon Harness placed second.

Kason Wolfe, Hunter Haught, Khamdyn Patterson, Karson Waag, Joshua Drury, Hudson Waag, Maddix Spencer, and Boston Parsons placed third.

Rixon Hathaway placed fourth, Blaze Ingram, Zayden Anderson, Hunter Fields, Bennett Thayer, and Carter Randall placed fourth.

Sand Springs Boys Drop Conference Opener to Owasso 47-44 in OT

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Photo by Charity Wickett. Click here to view full photo gallery.

A version of this story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

The Charles Page High School boys’ basketball team (2-1 overall, 0-1 conference) suffered their first loss of the season Tuesday, December 7th at the Ed Dubie Field House in a 47-44 overtime battle with No. 9 Owasso (3-1, 1-0). 

The No. 18 Sandites rallied from a 29-18 third-quarter deficit to take their only lead of the game at 37-36 late in the fourth quarter on a layup from Jason Clark.

Caleb Leslie’s fifth three-pointer of the night put the Rams back on top, but Ethan Oakley sank a pair of free throws with six seconds left to force the extra period. 

Caden Fry scored five straight points to start the four-minute overtime. A three from Kooper Kelly and a layup from Oakley kept the home team’s hopes alive, but EJ Lewis hit the back end of a one-and-one with six seconds remaining and Clark’s last-second three-point shot was no good.

“I’m proud of our heart and effort,” said head coach Eric Savage. “That’s got to be one thing we hang our hat on every night, and I thought they did that. It comes down to how well we execute at times.”

“Layups and free throws, it’s pretty basic. You make layups, you make your free throws, shoot a decent percentage, you win the game.” 

The Sandites were only 6-of-14 from the charity stripe and 10-of-26 from two-point range against the Rams.

JD Dickson led the home team with 15 points and four rebounds, followed by Ethan Oakley with 10 points and three boards. 

Sand Springs will take a week off to prepare for a conference road game at No. 4 Jenks (4-0, 1-0). The two teams split meetings last year, with Jenks winning a conference overtime game, but the Sandites got payback with an upset at Regionals. 

Jenks leads the series 8-7 in the Eric Savage era but the Sandites have won seven of the last nine. 

Scoring: (CPHS) Dickson 15, Oakley 10, Kelly 9, Clark 5, Askew 3, Brockman 1, Holland 1. (OHS) Leslie 15, Fry 10, Lewis 8, Clifton 5, Mann 4, Harbaugh 3, Manuel 2. 

Sand Springs won the junior varsity game 42-39 behind Collin Shope’s 18 points. Alijah Roper scored 8, Blake Johnson scored 6, and Michael Foster and Mark Lair scored 5 each.

Clark scores 21, Sandites knock off NOAH 66-48

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The first time the Sand Springs boys’ basketball team played NOAH  it had to make a 16-point comeback to win its season opener. But two weeks later the No. 20 ranked Sandites (2-0) never trailed by more than six points and picked up a 66-48 win Friday night at the Ed Dubie Field House.

In a close first quarter that saw five lead changes, the Jaguars (3-3) began to pull away with nine-straight points down the stretch, but a putback from Cale Askew made it 15-11 at the buzzer.

The second quarter was all Sandites.

Jason Clark scored on a steal and assist from Askew, then Kooper Kelly and Clark hit back-to-back threes and the home team never trailed again. Kade Holland’s two-point jump shot made it 32-20 at the half.

Sand Springs continued to pull away in the third quarter and the scoring was evenly spread with seven Sandites hitting paydirt. 

The home team went up 52-35 to start the final stanza and never slowed down, leading by as much as 66-44 before the Jaguars ended the game on a 4-0 run from the charity stripe. 

Clark led all scorers with 21 points, four rebounds, and four assists, followed by JD Dickson with 13 points and Kelly with ten points. 

Sand Springs will kick off Frontier Valley Conference action Tuesday with a home game against No. 6 Owasso (0-0). The No. 12 Lady Sandites will open their season at 6:30 p.m. against the unranked Lady Rams (0-0) followed by the boys game. 

Scoring: (CPHS) Clark 21, Dickson 13, Kelly 10, Askew 7, Holland 5, Oakley 4, Foster 3, Brockman 2, Jones 1. (NOAH) Ian Hislop 13, Wagner 12, Connor Hislop 10, Edwards 4, Bell 4, Garner 3, Goldman 2.