Dylan Goforth
Phoenix Correspondent
March 02, 2008 01:05 am
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SKIATOOK — Adair came back from an early hole and fought off a feisty Eufaula bunch late to earn a third consecutive trip to the State tournament with a 66-55 win over the Ironheads on Saturday night in the Class 3A Area III consolation championship at Skiatook High School’s Johnson Activity Center.
Kirk Muse led No. 2-ranked Adair with 19 points as the Warriors experienced lineup proved to be too much for the upset minded Ironheads, who got a team-best 15 points from Ethan Sharp.
“Adair’s got a great team, I’m not taking anything away from them, but I thought our shooting fell off in the second half a little bit,” said Eufaula coach Bradley Campbell. “Maybe playing in our third straight game caught up to us.”
Trailing 38-35 with 3:50 left in the third quarter, Eufaula — which had led for much of the second half — got six straight points to regain its early lead. Trevor Walch, Sharp and Matt Helms scored on consecutive layups and suddenly the Ironheads, who looked all but dead after surrendering their early lead, were back up 41-38.
But the advantage was short lived. Northeastern State University football commit Kenny Davis ended the third period with a turnaround jumper in the paint to cut the lead to one, and the Warriors kicked off the fourth quarter with five straight points to retake the lead for good.
“They hit the shots down the stretch,” said Campbell. “You can tell why they’re going to state again.”
Eufaula led by as many as 14 early — a Sharp jumper with just over a minute left to go in the first quarter put the Ironheads up 21-7 — but Adair quickly erased that deficit. The Warriors finished the first quarter off with five consecutive points and then opened up the second with an 18-6 run to jump into the lead.
Verdigris girls 60,
Eufaula 40
Cassie Clarke — yes, record-setting Rotnei’s sister — joined her brother in state tournament family festivities, scoring a game-high 24 points to go along with nine rebounds and three blocks, helping Verdigris defeat Eufaula in the Area III girls consolation title game.
Lennea Alston lead the Lady Ironheads (18-8) with 17 points, and Kayla Crawford added 15, but Eufaula couldn’t overcome the inside-outside combination of Clarke and Verdigris forward Julia Mitchell.
A Clarke free-throw midway through the second quarter gave the Lady Cardinals (21-8) a 20-10 lead. Verdigris’ advantage never dipped below double-digits for the rest of the contest.
“I think that we didn’t have some people step up that we needed to have step up,” said Eufaula coach Larry Callison. “You need to score to keep up with a team like Verdigris, and we just didn’t score enough points.”
The closest Eufaula got in the second half was 12 points, after a Crawford runner pulled the Lady Ironheads to within 58-46 with just over a minute remaining in the fourth quarter.
“(Verdigris) has been there before and we haven’t and that makes a big difference, you know,” said Callison. “A lot of times, when a team comes through the loser’s bracket like they did, they come through with momentum, especially when they have a chance to beat a team like us that already beat them once, and they can be tough to handle.”
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