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By: Chris Evans
The Titan Classic Tournament was labeled as a "state tournament" caliber field and with good reason. After all, it had Class 6A's second and third ranked teams, including the returning state champion in the state's largest class, but the Guthrie Bluejays would leave as tourney champs.
Inside Carl Albert High School the sixth ranked Guthrie Bluejays downed returning state champion Midwest City, 49-48, in one of the most thrilling games many will see in the entire state of Oklahoma to win the Titan Classic Championship.
Guthrie dodged three last second shots by the talented Bomber guards, as the buzzer sounded, sending Guthrie players into celebration mode with their second tournament championship this season.
The game was tied 35-all at the end of the third quarter, but the Jays would trail the entire fourth quarter but the final 30 seconds.
MWC would connect on two free throws to give the Bombers a 48-44 lead with 2:49 left to play. MWC would then go to a four corner offense to take time off the clock and were successful doing it, but Guthrie would force a jump ball and a Bomber turnover to give the Jays ball back with :46 to play trailing by four.
Junior guard Keaton Callins inbounded the ball, in front of the Bluejay bench, to Donte Foster, who quickly gave it back to Callins for a three point shot that rattled out, but senior post Kent McDonald got the rebound and found Foster wide open at the top of the key.
Foster would take the shot and would rattle it in to pull the Jays within one, 48-47, and immediately head coach Pete Papahronis called time out. Papahronis would find himself near the MWC bench in the process of making sure the game official got the time out with 34 ticks remaining.
Out of the time out, MWC would turn the ball over to Guthrie and would then call a time out. Three seconds later Foster was fouled and sent to the line trailing by one. Foster calmly went to the line and sunk both throws to give the Jays their first lead since the 1:59 mark in the third quarter.
MWC would walk the ball up the floor, as the entire crowd in the gymnasium came to their feet in anticipation of the games final few seconds in what was a hard battled contest from the very beginning. The Bombers would get a three point shot off from the corner, a put back from inside the paint, and then a last second shot from three point land that fell short.
Guthrie improves to 12-1 overall and 6-0 in tournament games and adds another championship trophy with the Ardmore Tournament trophy that the Jays won back in December this season.
Papahronis said one goal the Jays set for themselves is to hold opponents to 48 points or less and that is exactly what they did to a very talented Bomber team.
The game would see 8 different lead changes, but just two in the second half and both coming in the fourth quarter. MWC took a 37-35 lead in the first 25 seconds of the quarter and the last lead change came with 30 seconds to play on Foster's free throws.
Foster finished with 15 points and the Tournament MVP. Callins finished with 11 points including two trey's and perhaps none bigger coming with 3:21 in the fourth quarter to pull the Jays within two, 44-46. Callins would also had a highlight shot in the second quarter.
Callins took off on the right side and would be fouled, but was able to get off a high arching shot that would hit nothing but net and sent the packed arena into a buzz, and finished it off by making the free throw. Guthrie was 9-10 from the charity stripe while MWC finished 8-12 from the line.
Guthrie finished with eight different scorers on the night, but Papahronis was quickly to talk about his teams defensive game play with a deep Bluejay bench.
The Bluejays down 11th ranked Ardmore in the opening round, third ranked Tulsa Union in the semi's, and then second ranked MWC in the finals to leave no question who the best team was leaving the gymnasium on this particularly weekend.
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Scoring by Quarters
Guthrie 10 16 9 14 49
Midwest City 13 12 10 13 48
Donte Foster 15, Keaton Callins 11, Matt Hamilton 7, Devon Hall 4, Kentrell Brothers 4, Kent McDonald 4, Adam Smith 2, and Jon Washington 2