The Central Lady Tigers took home some hardware as they defeated the Vian Lady Wolverines 545-36 to win the consolation championship of the 2024 Sequoyah County Tournament on Friday night at Sallisaw High School’s Paul Post Field House.

After losing 32-24 to SCT host Sallisaw on Jan. 2 at Paul Post Field House, the Lady Tigers handled Gore 56-25 in the consolation semifinals last Wednesday afternoon on the same court.

The Tigers finished fourth after losing the third-place game 57-43 to Stigler on Saturday afternoon at Paul Post Field House. Central opened the tournament with a 63-60 stunning win over Vian on Jan 2 at Paul Post Field House, but lost Thursday’s semifinal game 56-48 to Muldrow at the same venue.

In the girls’ consolation finals, the Lady Tigers (7-3), who trailed 4-2, went on a 7-0 run, capped by a Hadlie Woods’ 3-point basket with 1:47 remaining in the period, to put Central ahead 9-4. A free throw by Vian’s Avery Wright cut Central’s lead to 9-5 at the end of the quarter.

A 3-pointer by Central’s Ryleigh Pierce capped a second-quarter beginning 8-4 run to put the Lady Tigers up 17-9 with 4:21 left before halftime.

Another basket by Wright helped Vian answer with a 7-2 run to cut Central’s advantage to 19-16 with 57 seconds remaining in the first half.

Central’s Cambree Bair put the exclamation mark on the first half as her basket with 36 seconds left in the first half gave the Lady Tigers a 21-16 halftime lead.

Vian’s Kala Gibbins hit a basket with 5:33 left in the third quarter to cut Central’s lead to 23-20, but that would be as close as the Lady Wolverines got.

Central ended the period with a 16-8 run to take a 39-28 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Lady Tigers got as large as a 22-point lead in the final period on a conventional threepoint play by Ayrland Jiles with 4:09 left to play to put Central ahead 5129.

For the game, Bair scored a game-high 18 points and Woods added 11 points to lead Central, followed by Koda Robbins with eight points, Jiles with six points, Haley Cheek with five points and Pierce and Brianna Taylor with three points apiece.

In the girls’ consolation semifinals, the Lady Tigers scored the game’s first seven points before Gore’s Oaklei Thornton hit a 3-point basket with 4:41 left in the opening period to cut Central’s lead to 7-3.

A conventional threepoint play by Thornton got the Lady Pirates to within three points at 9-6 with 2:55 remaining in the quarter. Unfortunately, that would be as close as they got.

Central ended the period with back-to-back baskets by Jiles and Bair to put the Lady Tigers ahead 13-6 at the end of the quarter.

The Lady Tigers put away the game with a 20-1 second period to take a 33-7 lead into the locker rooms at halftime, and they took a 49-16 advantage into the fourth quarter.

For the game, Bair scored a game-high 14 points and Woods added 12 points to lead Central, followed by Jiles with eight points, Cheek, Cheyenne Busch and Autumn Cernicek with four points each, Taylor with three points, Robbins and Gracie Thompson each with two points and Pierce, Alyvia Warner and Paris Campbell with a free throw apiece.

In the girls’ openinground loss, The Lady Diamonds took care of business at the freethrow line to propel them to a victory. Sallisaw went 14-of-24 at the line, while Central went 8-of-16.

In the game, the Lady Tigers had eight field goals and the Lady Diamonds had seven, including none in the fourth quarter. At the end of one quarter, Sallisaw led 6-5.

In the second quarter, scoring picked up on both sides as Sallisaw scored 10 and Central scored eight. Robbins heated up in the quarter as she scored six. At the half, Sallisaw had a 1613 advantage.

Thanks to a 6-0 run by Sallisaw, the Lady Diamonds had a 2517 lead. The Lady Diamonds had a 26-19 lead after three quarters.

In the fourth quarter, even though the Lady Diamonds didn’t make a field in the quarter, they hit 6-of-12 free throws to seal the deal.

Central’s leading scorer was Robbins with 14 points, followed by Woods with four points and Jiles, Busch and Cheek with two points apiece.

In the boys’ thirdplace game, the Tigers (4-6) grabbed an 8-7 lead on Devon Baggs’ basket with 4:01 left in the opening period. Unfortunately, it ended up being Central’s final lead.

The Panthers ended the period on a 13-2 run to take a 20-10 lead into the second period, which became a 36-23 halftime advantage.

Stigler got the lead to as high as 19 points at 46-27 with 3:32 left in the third quarter en route to a 51-38 advantage going into the final period.

Central got as close as 12 points in the fourth quarter as 54-42 on Jace Mendenhall’s basket with 5:30 left to play but got no closer.

In defeat, Baggs and Isaac Rogers each scored nine points to lead Central, followed by Coy Blackburn with six points, Mendenhall, Joseph Lee and Noah Buzzard with four points each, Cade Tucker, Hardy Buzzard and Aidan Sainer each with two points and Caleb Young with a free throw.

In the boys’ championship semifinals, the Bulldogs never trailed, but the Tigers kept hanging around.

After the ’Dogs scored the first six points of the game, the Tigers fought back to make it a 13-12 game at the end of the first quarter thanks to a basket by Connor Walters with three seconds left in the period.

Thanks to Drew Prewett’s basket with three seconds left before halftime, the Bulldogs grabbed their largest lead of the first half at 26-18 at the break, but a 20-10 third quarter for Muldrow increased its lead to the biggest of the game at 46-28 going into the final period.

However, the Tigers still were not ready to be tamed just yet by the ’Dogs as Central returned the favor by doubling Muldrow 20-10 in the fourth quarter.

The telltale factor was Central’s inability to hit its free throws as the Tigers were only 5-of-18 from the charity stripe.

In defeat, Baggs scored 11 points and Tucker added 10 points to lead Central, followed by Noah Buzzard with eight points, Sainer with seven points, Lee with six points and Walters, Blackburn and Braxin Goodson with two points apiece.

In the boys’ openinground upset of Vian, the Tigers upset the Wolverines with the help of Baggs as he scored 29 points.

Central had a 10-0 run in the first quarter to put the Tigers up 12-2, then Vian went on a 11-0 run to help get the game tied at 15-all entering the second period.

In the second quarter, no team had a run larger than four points. Central took a 34-32 lead into halftime.

Central opened things up in the third quarter with Baggs scoring the first five points to give Central a 39-32 lead.

Masyn Wright scored Vian’s first points of the second half with 3:40 remaining in the third quarter. Central had a 4842 lead heading into the final quarter.

Clutch shots in the fourth allowed Vian to stay in the game but the Wolverines were never able to get closer than three points in the period — but still had a chance to force overtime.

Central missed two free throws with 1.8 left, which allowed Vian to make a last second heave at the basket that fell short.

For the game, Baggs scored 29 points to lead Central, followed by Noah Buzzard with 10 points, Tucker with eight points, Sainer with seven points, Hardy Buzzard with five points and Cole Holcomb with four points.