Okarche dominates Moss in district

Even with 22 wins on their resume, scoring hadn’t always come easy for the Okarche Lady Warriors.

That wasn’t the case in their district championship.

Okarche scored early, often and at will Saturday in handing visiting Moss an 88-34 defeat in their Class A matchup.

The win keeps the Lady Warriors, now 23-3, in the winner’s bracket entering this week’s regional. They’ll play Soper (14-12) at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Moss.

Moss went up 3-2 in the opening minutes Saturday, but that only led to a 20-0 Okarche run, including back-to-back 3-pointers from Rachel McDowell and Reagan Robinson.

McDowell buried a trio of treys and had 12 points in the first frame as Okarche staked a 22-5 lead.

She added six more in the second as the advantage grew to 42-9.

The points kept pouring in during the second half.

Freshman Jalie Rother nailed three 3-pointers in the second half while Tyson Endres and Emma Stover also heated up.

Endres, who sang the national anthem before the game, scored all 11 of her points in the second half.

Endres scored 10 of her 14 in that stretch.

In all, Okarche had six players hit double figures.

McDowell led the way with 18.

Marlo Hunt joined Stover in scoring 14 points.

Robinson finished with 12 while Rother and Endres had 11 apiece.

Ryen Wittrock scored eight.

A lot of Okarche’s offense was set up with its defense. The Lady Warriors forced 29 turnovers against Moss.

A win Thursday sends Okarche to the regional championship at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Moss. A loss puts the Lady Warriors into the consolation bracket where they’d play at 1:30 p.m. Friday.

Warriors run past Moss

Tougher tests lie directly ahead, so coach Aaron West will gladly take a blowout victory for his Okarche Warriors.

He got it Saturday as Okarche ran Moss ragged in a 71-30 victory in their Class A district championship game.

“We will take ones like this,” West said after his team moved to 14-12. “We’ve got a tough stretch coming.”

It starts Thursday when the Warriors take on No. 17 Asher (17-9) at 8 p.m. in Moss in a regional semifinal.

Asher has spent time this season among the top-eight teams in the class.

That wasn’t the case for Moss, which had just five wins coming into the district.

The Pirates, though, never adjusted to Okarche’s frantic style of play.

Although the Warriors were turning it over more frequently than West preferred, they still forced 30 Pirate turnovers.

That helped them go up 26-7 after a quarter and 55-11 at the half.

As the score might suggest, Okarche dominated every phase of the game.

The Warriors scored 38 points off turnovers and had 37 second-chance points.

They out-rebounded the Pirates 67-29.

Joseph Schaefer led the team with 10 rebounds. He also poured in 14 points to earn a double-double.

Landon Goble added nine boards while Koby Mingus had eight to go along with his eight points.

Logan Kroener led all scorers with 17 points. He also had six rebounds and a team-high four assists.

Kaleb Harris scored nine points while Evan Endres added seven.

If Okarche wins Thursday, it will play for a regional title at 8 p.m. Saturday, likely against No. 3 Fort Cobb-Broxton, which has played in the last five Class A state championship games.

A loss puts Okarche in Friday’s consolation bracket at 3 p.m.