It was almost a clean sweep for the Roland High School basketball teams over the last weekplus worth of games.
On Jan. 31 at the Ranger Dome, the Rooland squads swept a pair of NOAA Conference home games from Checotah as the Lady Rangers won 60-24, then the Runnin’ Rangers got an 81-49 victory.
On Feb. 3 at Poteau High School’s Sherman Floyd Fieldhouse, the Roland teams swept conference foe Poteau to spoil its homecoming as the Runnin’ Rangers prevailed 82-53, followed by the Lady Rangers winning 37-23.
Last Friday night at Stilwell, it was another NOAA Conference road sweep as the Lady Rangers beat the Lady Indians 64-36, then the Runnin’ Rangers got past the Indians 73-65.
The only blemish on the stretch of games was a conference split with archrival Muldrow as the Lady Rangers beat the Lady Bulldogs 4831, but the Bulldogs handed the Runnin’ Rangers their first defeat of the season with a 5554 victory. These games originally snowed out Jan. 27.
In the girls’ win over Checotah, the Lady Rangers (14-3 overall, 6-1 in NOAA Conference play) scored the game’s first five points of the game en route to a 19-7 lead after a quarter. A 21-7 second quarter for the Lady Rangers upped their advantage to 40-14 at the half. After Roland took a 56-16 lead into the final period, Adriana Moya gave the Lady Rangers their largest lead of the night at 42 points at 58-16 with 7:42 left to play in the game. For the contest, Ryanne Nelke led Roland with a game-high 25 points, followed by Molly Carver with 13 points, Halle Freeman with nine points, Moya and Lillian Cole with four points each and Karsyn Serjeant with three points.
In the boys’ victory over Checotah, Roland led 32-5 after a period and 51-14 at halftime.
The Runnin’ Rangers (17-1, 7-1) got their highest lead of the night with 34 seconds left in the third quarter as a basket by Derrick Allen put Roland ahead by 46 points at 68-22. Roland took a 68-26 lead into the fourth quarter.
For the game, Damonte “Bubba” Owens scored 22 points to lead Roland, followed by Mason Kemp with 15 points, Tae Smith with nine points, Raidyn Knight with eight points, Daxton Owens with seven points, Landon Fowler with six points, Austin Benham, Josh Bower and Nathan Cheek with three points each, Allen and Kade Shook each with two points and Cason Perryman with a free throw.
In the girls’ victory over Muldrow, the Lady Rangers led 10-7 after a period, which became a 25-18 halftime advantage and a 35-26 lead going into the fourth quarter.
For the game, Roland put a trio of players into double figures, led by Nelke’s game-high 19 points, followed by Freeman’s 13 points and Carver’s 11 points. Cole scored three points, while Moya added two points.
In the boys’ loss to Muldrow, the Bulldogs rallied from a 33-24 halftime deficit as they outscored their archrivals 31-21 in the second half to get the comefrom- behind victory. In defeat, Damonte “Bubba” Owens scored a game-high 27 points to lead Roland, followed by Knight with 12 points, Kemp with eight points and Fowler with seven points.
In the boys’ win at Poteau, sophomore guard Damonte “Bubba” Owens scored a game-high 22 points, which put him over 1,000 points for his prep career.
The Runnin’ Rangers took control early, taking a 31-12 lead after a quarter and never relinquished their advantage.
Besides Owens, Knight scored 18 points, followed by Fowler with 14 points, Kemp with 12 points, Tae Smith with six points, Kade Shook with four points, Bryson Myers and Josh Bower with two points and Nathan Cheek with a free throw.
In the girls’ victory at Poteau, the Lady Rangers made it a happy return to Poteau for coach Scott Nelke, who coached the Pirates for seven seasons earlier in his coaching career.
Roland jumped out to a 5-1 lead after a quarter, which became an 11-5 halftime advantage and a 26-14 lead after three periods.
For the game, Freeman scored 14 points and Nelke added 11 points to lead Roland, followed by Cole with seven points and Carver with five points.
In the girls’ road win at Stilwell, the Lady Rangers led 12-10 after a quarter, but used a 19-5 second period to up their advantage to 31-15 at halftime, which became a 45-30 lead going into the fourth quarter.
For the game, Nelke scored a game-high 23 points to lead Roland, followed by Carver with 17 points, Freeman with 14 points, Cole with seven potions, Payton Sampley with two points and Serjeant with a free throw.
In the boys’ road victory at Stilwell, the Runnin’ Rangers rallied from a 19-17 first-quarter deficit by outscoring the Indians 56-48 over the final three periods to get the comeback win.
For the game, Damonte “Bubba” Owens led all scorers with a game-high 33 points to lead Roland, followed by Kemp with 12 points, Knight and Fowler with 10 points each, Cason Perryman with five points and Shook with three points.
The Roland squads got good news from the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association as for the second time in three seasons they each got a bye into the Class 3A Regional Tournament, which will begin Feb. 26 at the Ranger Dome. They will be in the night games, with the girls’ game at 6 p.m. and the boys’ contest at 7:30 p.m.
