MOORE — Carl Albert sits atop 5A for a reason, but No. 7 Eisenhower gave the one-loss Titans their money’s worth for all 32 minutes on Friday night’s Area title game.
In the end, Carl Albert (25-1) prevailed with a 69-67 win over Ike (16-9) to book its ticket to State.
Meanwhile, the Eagles will have another shot to join the Titans at the state tournament today when they take on Ardmore in the consolation final at Edmond North High School at 6:30 p.m.
“That’s tough mentally when you lose a close game and expend a lot of energy,” Ike coach Todd Millwee said after an agonizingly close loss. “Our schedule helps us because after some tough losses we’ve had to come right back the next day. So I think our guys are mentally tough enough to show up and bring it again.”
Ike has been through the quick weekend turnarounds, which is why a minor playoff setback won’t faze them when they get a second chance tonight.
Still, the Eagles can’t help but wonder what could’ve been. A win almost seemed out of the question, but after a 13-2 run midway through the fourth quarter to take a 61-60 lead, Ike had Carl Albert on the ropes.
“It shows the character of our kids that we don’t give up,” Millwee said. “There are going to be ups and downs against good teams so we just have to battle those and we’ll get on our run.”
Kevin Farmer (nine points) sank two 3-pointers in that span, Mookie Douglas (eight points) drilled another in addition to his steal and layup and Romio Harvey — who led the Eagles with 19 points— scored on a beautiful hesitation layup to give Ike its first lead since the third quarter.
“Mookie’s a competitor,” Millwee said. “That’s why I put him in there. He’s not afraid of the big moments. We felt like we had them on the ropes at that moment, though.”
Despite the late surge, Titan point guard Mason Harrell, who scored 21 points, dropped a mid-air dime while being hounded with 1:13 left for a crucial Carl Albert layup and a 68-65 lead.
Trailing 69-67 shortly after, Ike got a decent look to tie the game in the final seconds, but Kinyon Parker’s running floater was a tad strong. It bounced off the back-iron and into a mad scramble as time expired, leaving the Eagles one bucket short of what would’ve been their biggest win of the season.
“We were trying to reverse the ball and give Romeo a window to penetrate for a layup,” Millwee said of the team’s final shot. “They did a good job of cutting off the penetration and got us out of what we wanted to do.
Millwee said it hurt not having RJ Fisher out on the court to give the Eagles another go-to option with Harvey in the final seconds.
Fisher, who scored nine points, fouled out with 1:40 left with Ike down by one. The whistle came on a controversial push-off call, Fisher’s second of the game.
Ike struggled mightily from beyond the arc in the first half, only going 1-of-9 from deep, but when they switched sides out of the locker room, the Eagles canned seven treys to provide an entertaining back-and-forth offensive spectacle.
The Eagles crashed the glass early and often as they had seven offensive rebounds and eight second-chance points in the first quarter alone.
While Ike tried to keep it close, Trey Hopkins did everything he could to help his team pull away. Hopkins lit up the scoreboard for six treys and 39 points — 37 of which came in the first three quarters — and Ike had no answer to stop him.
Hopkins, who, unlike Fisher, got away with several push-offs to create space in the half court, cashed in a deep NBA-range 3-pointer as the third quarter buzzer sounded, giving Carl Albert momentum and a 53-48 lead all the while delivering a deflating blow to Ike heading into the fourth.
“That definitely hurt,” Millwee said. “He’s an unbelievable athlete who can just rise up and hit shots, but he made some unbelievable shots that I don’t think he can make the next time we play him.”
While the Eagles didn’t quite pull off the upset, Millwee was impressed with his team’s resilience something that should pay off tonight and possibly the State tournament.
“I thought our guys did a good job battling and still believing in each other at the end,” Millwee said.
Box Score
Carl Albert 69, Eisenhower 67, Boys
Eisenhower– Romio Harvey 7-4-19, Becton 1-1-3, Fisher, 3-3-9, Graham 1-0-2, Douglas 3-0-8, Farmer 3-0-9, Perkins 1-0-2, Cruse 0-2-2, Antonio Gordon 5-1-13. Totals 24-11-67.
Carl Albert – Trey Hopkins 15-3-39, Mason Harrell 7-5-21, Cook 1-2-4, Reinke 1-0-2, Taylor 1-0-3.
Score by quarters:
Ike 13 16 19 19 — 67
Carl Albert 14 18 21 16 — 69
3-point goals: Ike —Farmer 3, Gordon 2, Douglas 2, Harvey. Carl Albert — Hopkins 6, Harrell 2, Taylor.
Area Elimination Game
Ardmore 66, Southeast 50