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.

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.

Meet the Sandites wrestling dual is smashing success

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For the first time in the Jarrod Patterson era, the doors were open to the public for the Charles Page High School wrestling team’s ranking matches, and it was quite the spectacle.

The Sandites and Keystone Kids wrestling club teamed up Thursday night at Clyde Boyd Middle School to host Meet the Sandites, as Sand Springs wrestlers at the elementary, junior high, and high school levels all settled who was the best in each weight class.

Sand Springs used to open the ranking matches to the public back when Kelly Smith was head coach, but the tradition ended around 2016. Smith retired in 2019, but is now back on the team as an assistant as his son, Mitchell, enters his junior year.

“We’re excited to have him back,” said Patterson. “We were just kind of talking, and he said that was one thing they used to do that kind of got kids excited, so I was kind of excited to bring it back.”

“It seems like it worked out awesome. It seemed like they got a lot of fan support, and it’s good from the youth all the way up to high school.” 

The stands were certainly packed as the action went on simultaneously across three mats. On the varsity mat, the black team defeated the white in an evenly matched dual. 

Many recognizable faces returned to mat duty, including state qualifiers Mitchell Smith and Brooks Dudley, who won their matches by fall. Missing were Blake Jones and Mason Harris, who are recovering from football injuries.

“We’ve got a couple kids that are injured, but once we get through those injuries I think we should be pretty good,” said Patterson. “We’ve got a good group. They’re all hard-working kids from freshmen to seniors, so I think we’ve got some good leadership in there that will help us in the long haul.”

The Sandites graduated only one starter last year and added lots of talented junior high up-and-comers to give the team some extra depth and competitiveness at every weight range.

“We’re pretty solid all the way through, so as long as we can stay healthy and just battle and continue to get better we should be a really solid team,” said Patterson.

“We’ll have three freshmen in there who have a chance at getting in the lineup. Our 106-pounder is David Ritchey, then Colt Hood will be in there some at 113, and Jaxon “Scout” Trotter will be in there at 138.”

They will lean on seniors Shane Wolf, Colton Luker, Ethan Norton, Sammy Naugle, Jones, and Dudley for leadership.

Last year the Sandites finished the season a surprising 4-6, snapping a 14-year streak of winning records, primarily due to COVID-related quarantines, injuries, and canceled duals. They still brought home four first-place tournament medals, however, and qualified four for the State tournament.

Varsity will kick off the season Friday at the Perry Tournament of Champions, and will battle Sapulpa in their first dual on Tuesday the 14th at 7:00 p.m. on the road.

The junior high team hosted its annual tournament Saturday at CBMS and the Gold team took home first prize, followed by the Black team in sixth place and the White team in 19th. The girls placed 12th in their division.

Dawson Briscoe won at 80 pounds with six pins, Kaden Pope won at 106 with six pins, Jace Simms won at 119 with three pins, and Bailey Copeland won 82 pounds for the girls with a pin and a 17-2 technical fall.

Hudson Sheppard, Jaden Allen, Waylon Jeffers, and Ryley Kester placed second. Jaxon Grigsby, Karsen Skaggs, Matthew Moore, Jackson Burdge, and Tanner Copeland placed third. Colt Hood, Caleb Childers, and Preston Reyna placed fourth

The Keystone Kids competed at Sperry and Owasso on Saturday. Weston Roberts, Ty Galloway, and Mylum Ache V won at the Owasso Ram Jam, while Julian Valdez, Hudson Waag, and Bailey Copeland won at the Sperry Smalltown Throwdown.

Sandite Girls Basketball poised for great season

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There are only eight days left till the Charles Page High School girls’ basketball program tips off the season, and the Lady Sandites seem poised for what should be a great season.

Sand Springs is entering its third year under head coach Josh Berry, who guided the team to a 12-9 record last year and was 15-8 in his first season. 

The core of last year’s unit is intact after graduating only two seniors. While the Sandites will miss Bayleigh Cheney and Darrian Jordan, they won’t be short on talent.

84% of the team’s scoring power will return, including senior star Journey Armstead, who averaged 16.9 points and 4.2 rebounds per game last year, and Hailey Jackson, who averaged 9 points and 5 rebounds.

“Armstead is of course going to be big on that (leadership),” says Berry. “She brings playmaking ability. She makes shots when shots need to be made. She's just a playmaker all the way around for us, and of course, in the locker room, she’s a leader in that area too.”

“Then we’ve got Layne Kirkendoll. I think she’s going to be able to step into a bigger role. She’s gotten better every year that we’ve had her and I think she’s one of the smarter players that I’ve coached in a while. She knows where everybody needs to be. So I think those two are going to be really big on the vocal aspect of everything.”

“A big part of us being really good this year is going to be Hailey Jackson scoring. She has to step that role up and be a big scorer, and so does Sakauri Wilson. They have to step up and kind of take the pressure off of Journey to have to score so much.”

Wilson, Armstead’s sophomore sister, averaged 7 points and 2.6 steals per game last year.

The team is filled with upperclassmen, with Avery Tanner, Kirkendoll, and Leyshia Morris all in their senior years.

Girls’ basketball has been one of the most successful Sandite sports in recent years, with three consecutive Regional and Area Championships from 2017 to 2019. Last year the girls made it to the Area playoffs and beat Edmond Memorial before falling 36-33 to Midwest City.

“Our goal every year is to get better every day both individually and as a group,” says Berry. “ If we can do that then I think the rest will take care of itself. We do have a group here that’s pretty special, so if the ball bounces in the right direction, then you know, we’ve got a shot.”

“I think strength wise, defense is what we’re going to be really good at. I think that’s what we’re going to have to lay our hat on, is being there defensively.” Last year the girls averaged 10.5 steals per game.

“I do think we can play with anybody, we can beat anybody in the state. Now I do think we can lose to anybody if we don’t come ready to play. So you know, that’s kind of how I approach the girls all the time. Any given night we can win, any given night we can lose. It just depends on what type of energy we’re going to bring and what type of execution we’re going to bring.”

The girls will tip off the season Tuesday, December 7th with a Frontier Valley Conference home game against Owasso at 6:30 p.m., then will compete at the Tulsa Central tournament that weekend.

They will also compete at the Jenks/Union tournament in January, and will travel to Tampa Bay, Florida for a tournament over Christmas break.

“It’s something new for me, something I haven’t done with a group yet in my 13 years of coaching,” says Berry. “I just thought this was a group that’s been together a while, a special group that I wanted to reward them to be able to go out of town and hopefully go see some competition and hopefully be in another region for scholarship potentials. It’s a pretty good tournament, it’s going to be pretty big. There's going to be some good competition from all over the country.”