 |
|||||||||||||||
|
By: Chris Evans
Where's there a will, there's a way and when there is an Emily Davis there is a chance. That would explain the week in El Reno for regional play. Davis would score 46 of her teams 89 points to secure a regional championship and are now one win away from punching their ticket to the State Tournament.
The Guthrie Lady Jays (13-10) defeated regional host El Reno (16-8) 35-31 to secure the hardware and would give the Lady Jays their first victory over El Reno in four tries. Of course, none bigger then in post season play.
Davis is quick to acknowledge that was just not the Emily Davis show with the Dwyer sisters playing tremendous defense on the two stand-out players for the Lady Indians in Britney Nuzum and Tara Ramsey. Combined the El Reno duo could only manage 14 points.
Brittney Berryman saw more minutes then in games past and took advantage by securing the ball and nailed an all important free throw, along with Tory Dwyer's free throw, to stamp the victory officially in the final minute of the game.
El Reno jumped out to a 20-14 half time lead after the game was tied at 10 a piece at the end of the opening quarter. Guthrie would go on a 6-0 run in the final 1:30 to tie the game at 10.
The Lady Indians would then out score Guthrie 10-4 in the second quarter, but the tide would turn in the third quarter. The Lady Jays held El Reno to just three third quarter points. Guthrie would add 10 to take a, 26-23, lead going into the fourth quarter. A lead they would not relinquish.
In the games turnaround quarter, Guthrie ended the third quarter with a 5-0 run in the last 3:08. Davis would connect on two big 3-point shots to tie up El Reno at 21 with 4:16 to play in the quarter.
The Lady Jays would make 7 of 11 free throws in the final quarter and would have a led as big as five points, 28-23, with 6:23 to play in the game. El Reno would pull within two points, 29-27, with 4:30 left in the game, but Guthrie would allow just four more points by playing tremendous defense.
Head coach Terry Carris has turned around a program that has not seen a regional win and for that sake a winning record in quite some time in just his first season on the GHS bench.
Guthrie now must focus on the Area Tournament,on Thursday, and the Lady Panthers of Harrah High School. Harrah has downed the Lady Jays twice this season. The winner between the school's, on a neutral floor, advances to the State Tournament while the loser must play the winner of the Lawton MacArthur-Altus game in an elimination game on Saturday.
The Guthrie-Harrah game will be Thursday night at Norman North High School with a start time of 6:30. The loser of the game must turn around Saturday and play the winner of the Altus-Lawton MacArthur game in an elimination game. Harrah is 22-65 on the season and ranked fourth in the state.
Guthrie Sports Page will have more information on the Area Tournament when more information is released about location and time.
Other Regional games:
On the East side of the state three of the four host teams won their regional including T. Washington, T. Edison, and Coweta. The lone upset of the weekend was McAlester winning the T.E. Central regional 39-35.
On this of the side Guthrie was the only team to win that was not hosting a regional. Carl Albert slid past Altus 37-32, Durant got by L. MacArthur 56-46 and Harrah blew by Shawnee 67-27.