Lady Warriors avenge Thomas loss
Okarche earned a bit of payback and also secured its spot in the area tournament in one night.
The Lady Warriors bested Thomas 50-45 at home Saturday in their Class A regional winner’s bracket matchup.
The win put Okarche into the regional final Tuesday night (after press time) against Woodland. Win or lose that game, the eighthranked Lady Warriors will play later this week in the area tournament in Enid.
Thomas defeated the Lady Warriors 52-43 in mid-January. Since then, Okarche has won seven of eight games.
In this matchup, the teams were tied at halftime before Okarche opened up a four-point lead by allowing only six third-quarter points.
“We had the same amount of turnovers as last time,” said Okarche coach Haley Mitchel. “But we did play better defense this time around.”
Thomas had just one field goal in the third quarter and four in the second half.
Meantime, Sophie Vandendriessche continued a hot hand she had in the first half.
The junior guard had eight first-half points. She added six with two third-quarter 3-pointers and then four more points in the fourth.
Vandendriessche led all scorers with 18 points.
She made both of her free throws in the fourth quarter and the team was 8 of 10 in the final eight minutes.
The Lady Warriors were 12 of 14 for the game, a stat Mitchel said played a key role in holding off Thomas.
The Lady Terriers were led by Katelyn Jones’ 11 points.
Madison Owens added 11 points for Okarche, which improved to 14-5.
Ryen Wittrock chipped in eight points while Emma Stover scored seven and Karsyn Vallerand six.
Vallerand was out when the teams first played.
The Lady Warriors played this game without Tyson Endres, who injured her knee during a practice last week.
Warriors fall to Thomas, Woodland as season comes to end
Back-to-back losses in the regional put an end to the Okarche boys’ season.
The end came Monday when the Warriors were dealt a 61-53 overtime loss at home by Woodland.
The Warriors’ season ended with a 10-11 mark.
After having a chance to win at the end of regulation, Okarche fell behind by six points less than 45 seconds into the overtime period and never got closer than three the rest of the game.
Brayden Stover’s trey with 1:22 to go pulled Okarche within 56-53, but the Warriors didn’t score again.
Woodland went 6 of 10 from the foul line to close out the game.
The teams traded small runs as Woodland staked a 25-22 halftime lead.
The visiting Cougars then opened the second half with a 7-0 run to stake a 32-22 lead.
But Okarche stormed back to take a 36-34 lead with 35 seconds left in the quarter on a Wyatt Pinkerton layup.
The 14-2 spurt included a 10-0 run which saw Pinkerton and Stover both knock down 3-pointers.
The Warriors took an early four-point lead in the fourth quarter and, after several ties, led 47-45 with the ball as the final minute approached.
But Okarche turned it over, which allowed Woodland’s Nate Lockert to tie the game with 58.5 seconds to go in regulation.
Okarche held for the final shot, but couldn’t knock it down.
Lockert and Ethan Fesler buried 3-pointers to open the overtime period.
Logan Kroener with his own trey after a timeout, but the Cougars managed to hold their lead.
Fesler led all scorers with 22 points.
Lockert scored 11 and added 11 rebounds while Lucian McKinney had 15 points and nine rebounds.
The Cougars out-rebounded Okarche 37-29.
The Warriors got 14 points each from Kroener and Stover.
Evan Endres scored 10 points and had six assists before fouling out in the extra frame.
Okarche was sent to the consolation bracket by Thomas in a 50-33 defeat on Saturday.
Up seven at halftime, the Terriers outscored Okarche 28-18 in the second half.
Kroener was the only Warrior in double figures with 11 points.
Stover scored nine.