The Muldrow High School basketball teams entered Christmas Break by splitting their home games against Ozark, Ark., on Dec. 19 at Roger Sharp Activity Center.
The Lady Bulldogs defeated the Lady Hillbillies 42-27, but the ’Dogs lost 60-49 to the Hillbillies.
In the girls’ game, after the Lady Hillbillies (6-8) used a 4-0 run to take a 6-5 lead with 1:39 left in the first quarter, the Lady Bulldogs (34), or more precisely senior guard London Hardin, scored the final five points of the period to give Muldrow a 10-6 lead entering the second quarter. Muldrow would never trail again.
After the Lady Hillbillies cut their deficit to 12-10 on a basket by Makiah Jones with 6:21 left before halftime, the Lady Bulldogs ended the first half with a 17-2 run to take a 29-12 halftime lead. In the second half, the Lady Bulldogs built as high as a 23-point lead as Gracie Prewett’s basket with 3:16 left in the third quarter put Muldrow up 35-12. Her basket capped a 6-0 start to begin the third quarter.
Muldrow Lady Bulldogs coach Jana Armer said Friday night’s victory was much needed.
“It was really big,” she said. “We’ve had sickness. We’ve had injuries. We’ve had different types of adversity to deal with, especially this last week and a half. It just seemed like one thing would get better and something else would hit us. For us to come together and win, it was a total group effort. That’s exactly what you practice hard for. You work hard to get everybody into the game — and enjoy it. I’m so proud of all my kids. They worked hard, and we’re going to continue to work hard.”
For the game, Kilah Ellingberg scored a game-high 14 points and Hardin added 13 points to lead Muldrow, followed by Blazi Dieter and Kayla Ellingberg with four points each, Jaida Washington with three points, Prewett with two points and Jaydin Dean and Adysen Beller with a free throw apiece.
In the boys’ contest, trailing 20-16 after a period, the Hillbillies (122) outscored the Bulldogs 16-6 in the second quarter to take a 32-26 lead at halftime.
The ’Dogs (5-2) cut their deficit to four points on four occasions in the third quarter, the last time coming at the 1:38 mark of the period as Teaguen Collins’ 3-point basket cut Ozark’s lead to 42-38. That would be as close as Muldrow would get.
Ozark’s Cooper Duerr, who scored a gamehigh 27 points, hit a basket with 31 seconds left in the period to give his team a 44-38 lead going into the fourth quarter.
The Hillbillies built their lead to as great as 16 points as a 3-pointer by Lawson Wright put Ozark ahead 56-40 with 3:30 left to play in the game.
“We kind of got off our game plan a little bit,” Muldrow Bulldogs coach Terry Collins said. “We had the advantage inside. We couldn’t get the ball inside and made sure we were finding people. Our shots weren’t falling like they were (in Thursday night’s home win over Fort Gibson). Against Fort Gibson, we shot the ball a whole lot better. It (the loss to Ozark) is not the end of the world, but it lets us know that we’re still a good team but we have work to do.
The Bulldogs trailed 12-5 after a trey by Duerr capped a 9-0 run with 3:40 left in the first quarter, but the ’Dogs ended the period with a 15-4 run, capped nu De-Shawn Willson’s 3-point basket with 29 seconds remaining in the quarter to give Muldrow a 20-16 lead going into the second period.
In defeat, Collins scored 20 points to lead Muldrow, followed by Parker Sevenstar with nine points, Willson and D.J. Massey with six points each, Jesse Kilinc with five points and Jermauree Palmer with three points.
Muldrow High School Needing Past County Tournament Champions Photographs Muldrow High School is needing trophy team photographs of past boys and girls champions of the Sequoyah County Tournament.
This season’s SCT will take place Jan. 8-10 at Roger Sharp Activity Center as Muldrow is the host school this season.
While The Eastern Times-Register supplied the 2024 and 2025 SCT champions trophy team photographs, help is needed on SCT champions photographs from the 2022 SCT on back.
“I would like to get a picture of all of the previous (SCT) winners and put on our video board during the (Sequoyah) County Tournament,” Muldrow High School Athletic Director and Muldrow Lady Bulldogs coach Jana Armer said.
Team photographs can be e-mailed to Armer at jana.armer@staff. muldrowps.org.
Team photographs will need to be received by Jan. 7.
