In an electric environment last Friday night at Muldrow High School’s Roger Sharp Activity Center, the Roland High School basketball teams split their latest “Battle of 64” games on the hardwood with archrival Muldrow.

The Runnin’ Rangers held off a late charge by the Bulldogs for a 6260 win, earning Roland another NOAA Conference boys championship with the ‘Dogs finishing a game back to be conference runners-up.

The Lady Rangers lost their chance to be the outright conference champs as they fell 3832 to the Lady Bulldogs, who got their first win over Roland since a 3937 overtime win on Feb. 2, 2024, at home. The Muldrow win, coupled with Sallisaw’s road conference win at Checotah on Friday night, made the Lady Rangers and the Lady Diamonds coconference champions.

The Roland teams made it a successful Senior Night on Feb. 10 at the Ranger Dome as they swept the Sallisaw squads as the Lady Rangers avenged their conference loss to the Lady Diamonds with a 44-38 victory. Then, the Runnin’ Rangers downed the Black Diamonds 77-53. In the boys’ win over Muldrow, back-to-back baskets by Roland’s Damonte “Bubba” Owens and Mason Kemp put the Runnin’ Rangers (19-1 overall, 9-1 in NOAA Conference play) ahead 60-51 with 2:58 left in the game.

The Bulldogs, who knocked off the Runnin’ Rangers 55-54 on Jan. 31 at the Ranger Dome, clawed their way back as they went on a 7-2 run, capped by a basket by Teaguen Collins with 39 seconds remaining to play, to cut Roland’s lead to 62-60.

With four seconds left to play, a jump ball was called — with the possession arrow favoring the ‘Dogs.

Collins got the inbounds pass and drove to the basket, but his short-range jumper missed the mark.

Teammate D.J. Massey got the rebound and shot a second shortrange jumper, but, just like Collins’ attempt, just missed the mark as it bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded.

When the buzzer sounded, it gave the Runnin’ Rangers the NOAA Conference boys title.

For the game, Owens led all scorers with a game-high 21 points, followed by Kemp with 15 points, Raidyn Knight with 14 points, Kade Shook with 11 points and Cason Perryman with a free throw.

In the girls’ loss to Muldrow, the Lady Bulldogs jumped to an 8-0 lead, thanks to the game-starting run being capped by Kilah Ellingberg’s basket with 3:39 left in the first quarter.

The Lady Rangers (15-4, 8-2) did not score until the 2:25 mark of the period on Lillian Cole’s free throw to cut the deficit to 8-1.

The Lady Bulldogs ended the quarter on a 5-2 run, capped by Kilah Ellingberg’s basket at the buzzer, to give Muldrow a 13-3 lead after a period.

The Lady Rangers cut the Muldrow lead to five points at 19-14 on a 3-point basket by Cole with 2:51 left before halftime.

A basket by London Hardin and a pair of free throws by Kayla Ellingberg got Muldrow’s lead back to nine points at 23-14 with 61 seconds remaining in the first half.

Ryanne Nelke’s buzzer- beating basket cut Roland’s deficit to 23-16 at halftime.

The Muldrow lead got to as high as 11 points as a pair of free throws by Kayla Ellingberg with 2:28 left in the third quarter put the Lady Bulldogs ahead 29-18, only to see the Lady Rangers cut their deficit to 33-32 on Halle Freeman’s basket with 1:54 left in the game. However, Muldrow scored the game’s final five points to seal the deal.

It was a rough night for Nelke as she was held to seven points, thanks to Muldrow’s “Diamond-and-1” defense — with the “1” basically sticking like glue to the Roland junior, nearly making it impossible for Nelke to get the ball consistently.

In defeat, Freeman shared game-high honors with 12 points to lead Roland, followed by Cole with eight points, Nelke with seven points and Molly Carver with five points.

In the girls’ victory over Sallisaw, trailing 15-14 at halftime, the Lady Rangers outscored the Lady Diamonds 1610 in the third quarter to take a 30-25 lead into the final period.

The Lady Diamonds cut their deficit to a single point twice in the fourth quarter, but the Lady Rangers ended the game with a 10-5 run to seal the deal.

For the game, Nelke scored a game-high 21 points to lead Roland, Freeman with 19 points and Cole and Karsyn Serjeant with two points apiece.

In the boys’ win over Sallisaw, a basket by Tae Muskrat-Flynn cut the Sallisaw deficit to 8-5 with 3:27 left in the first quarter. That ended being as close as the Black Diamonds would get as the Runnin’ Rangers ended the period with a 14-5 run to take a 2210 lead into the second quarter.

Roland’s 23-16 second period upped its advantage to 45-26 at halftime, which became a 63-34 lead after three quarters.

Before the game tipped off, Roland sophomore guard Owens was formally recognized in front of his fans for reaching the 1,000-point mark in his career, which he reached in the Feb. 3 road conference game at Poteau.

For the game, Roland put three players into double figures, led by “Bubba” with a gamehigh 16 points, followed by Knight with 15 points and Shook with 10 points. Perryman had eight points, followed by Tae Smith and Landon Fowler with six points each, Kemp and Daxton Owens each with five points, Josh Bower with four points and Austin Benham with two points.

The Roland teams were slated to end their regular season Monday night with road games against Sequoyah-Tahlequah.