McLoud boys, Okemah girls take home the titles
The McLoud Redskins came from behind to take a tight 52-46 over Chandler in the finals of the 66 Conference tournament Saturday night in Seminole.
The win gave the Redskins their second conference championship in their nine years in the conference. They previously won it in 2016.
Okemah’s unbeaten girls beat McLoud, 68-59, to win their championship.
“We had three tough games, coach Tim Boyer said the tournament. “Prague is huge - they’re bigger than us, but we outphysicaled them.
“Holdenville isn’t huge, but they’re the scrappiest bunch we’ve played all season.
“We took care of that and played well all week, so I’m proud of our guys.”
Senior Bryce Cowns was named MVP of the tournament also scored his 1,000th point against Chandler.
He came into the game need 17 points to hit the thousand mark and finished with 18.
The teams were tied, 2929, at the half, but McLoud pulled ahead in the third quarter partly due to the scoring of Shaun Hill, who had 11 of McLoud’s 15 points in the period.
Scoringwasatapremium inthefinalquarter,asCowns had six of McLoud’s eight points and Jordan Denson had all six of Chandler’s.
“One of our keys to the game was to handle adversity,” Boyer said. “Chandler is a really good team, so we knew at some point they were going to make a run.
“The question was ‘how are we going to respond?’
“They went up by four and we could have folded, but our guys kept on battling. Early in the year, I don’t know if we would have battled like that, but these guys are getting better and better and being more of a team and trusting each other more.”
Denson had 17 to lead Chandler and Jake Smithey had 14.
Chandler’s girls took third place in their bracket, beating Holdenville, 46-44, and Holdenville bet Okemah, 48-43, in the boys’ third-place game. Above, Bryce Cowns (0) drives toward the baseline against the defense of Chandler’s Jordan Denson. He finished with 18 points, breaking the