Pauls Valley Girls
For the first time in eight years, #13 Pauls Valley qualified for the Area Tournament after winning the Regional Consolation Championship Saturday.
The Lady Panthers last reached Area in 2018; before that, 20 years earlier.
“We are excited to be going to the Area Tournament,” Coach Kayla Denton said. “It’s been a while since the Pauls Valley girls have been there.”
A tough loss to Lone Grove on Feb. 24 sent the Lady Panthers to the consolation bracket. Then they played at Douglass High School and won 57-45 over Sulphur on Friday and 62-48 over Plainview on Saturday.
“I’m glad we got it done. We just needed to wake up. It took us a minute to get the ball rolling,” said Kate Taylor after the Sulphur game. “At halftime, we realized it was do or die, and we decided to do.”
Taylor scored her 1,000th point during the game against Sulphur. The junior entered the game with 981 points and proceeded to score 27 points against the Lady Bulldogs.
“I’m just really happy,” she said. Other scorers against Sulphur were Mallory Carter with 11 points, Rachel Hamilton 7, Lexi Dismuke 5, Jessie Caldwell 5 and Kylene Denton 4.
In the Plainview game, Carter scored 17 points, Mady Williams 11, Taylor 10, Dismuke 9, Hamilton 7, Caldwell 7 and Denton 1.
The Lady Panthers began play in the Area Consolation bracket on Thursday (after press time), where they played Elgin. The winner of that game plays the winner of #18 Lone Grove vs Madill at 1 p.m. Friday at East Central University. The Area Consolation Championship will be at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Lindsay Boys
The #8 Leopards advance to the Class 3A Area II Tournament after suffering a tough 63-52 loss to Kingston Saturday in the Regional Championship at Washington.
“We are obviously really excited to still be playing this week,” Coach Timothy Boyer said. “There are 64 teams in 3A, and only 24 have made it to this week, so for us to be one of them is special.”
Lindsay opened Area competition Thursday (after press time) playing Silo. The winner of that game will play the winner of Washington vs. Dickson at 2:30 p.m. Friday at Madill. The Area Consolation Championship will be 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Stratford Girls
The #9 Lady Bulldogs advance to the Class 2A Area II Tournament after losing the Regional Championship 64-36 to #6 Riverside on Saturday.
Stratford began playing in the Area Consolation bracket Thursday against Watonga. The winner will advance to play 1 p.m. Friday at Bridge Creek against the winner of the Christian Heritage Academy vs Cashion game. The Area Consolation Championship will be 6 p.m. Saturday.
