The Lawton High basketball teams had a tough outing on the hardwood Tuesday night at Wolverine Gym.
Putnam City West showed why its hoops program is one of the best in the state, with both Patriot squads earning a pair of victories over LHS in convincing fashion. The Wolverine girls were overwhelmed by the No. 1 team in Class 6A, losing 62-37.
The boys met a similar fate, falling victim to No. 5 PC West's depth of skillful shooters in a 79-64 decision.
LHS returns to action on the road against Putnam City on Friday. The girls are set to tip at 6 p.m., with the boys' contest beginning immediately after the conclusion.
Turnovers doom LHS girls The pressure was too much for the Wolverine girls to bear.
The Patriots smothered the LHS offense for most of the game, taking advantage of several miscues in an 81-37 victory. The Wolverines committed a startling 40 turnovers in the loss.
The defense was so intense, LHS could barely get across halfcourt, let alone score points. By the time the Wolverines netted their first basket at the 1:04 mark in the first quarter, PC West (12-2) had already separated itself with 16 points of its own.
LHS (3-6) surrendered 27 of its turnovers in the first half, leading to a 41-4 halftime deficit.
Wolverines coach Otis Gentry said he was disappointed in the way his team handled the Patriots' full-court press.
"When you spend a whole practice working on (the press) and it's completely opposite in the game, it's a mindset thing," Gentry said. "The team wasn't ready for it mentally. We even worked with the boys for 15 minutes with them working with us on the ball pressure (PC West) was going to have, but in the game, we handled it completely opposite of the way we wanted to."
Things improved in the second half and LHS managed to score more points in the fourth quarter, 22, than the first three quarters combined, 15, but it was too late to make a meaningful run.
"I told the team you're playing for pride, and you want to keep working to prepare yourself for the next game," Gentry said of the fourth quarter performance. "To me, that last quarter was a positive note for them because it showed we can handle the pressure. They should've came out at the beginning of the game knowing they can do it."
Tyeshia Anderson led the Wolverines with 11 points, and Patrice Jones had a strong second half with nine points. Thirteen players scored for the Patriots, led by Ce'Nara Skanes (15 points), Mekayla Furman (13 points), Alyssa Parmer (13 points) and Alyssa Boyce (12 points).
Sharpshooting Pats down LHS boys The Wolverines simply couldn't keep up PC West's depth.
The Patriots looked to their slew of shooters early and often, finishing with four players in double figures on the way to a 79-64 win. Perhaps the biggest factor, though, was 3-point shooting.
PC West (11-3) made only four more total field goals than the Wolverines, but its 10 3-pointers helped it extend the lead down the stretch. LHS managed only two shots from deep, giving the Patriots a points advantage of 30-6 from beyond the arc.
Greg Thomas, who led PC West with 16 points, hit four of his team's perimeter shots.
Wolverines coach Eric Wiley said it was hard to defend such an array of talent.
"We were exposed a little bit — we got a little tired," Wiley said. "I told the guys they have to leave it all on the floor tonight because they have a lot of athletes, and they are going to run them in and out. I told them, 'You're going to be tired after this game, and if you're not tired after this game, you didn't play basketball.'
"We tried to slow the ball down since they had so many guys coming in, and I thought if we could keep the score around 50 or 60, we'd have a chance to win it. But if we let it get up to 70, we'd run out of gas, and of course, we ran out of gas at the end."
The Patriots allowed its performance from deep to dictate their inside presence as well. Of PC West's 18 two-point field goals, most were in the paint.
"We kept leaving lanes open, and that's what I was trying to enforce — cut off the lanes," Wiley said. "We just started working on the zone that we ran tonight, and I actually think they ran it pretty well — I was kind of impressed with it."
Ashawnti Hunter led LHS (5-6) with 21 points, while Emajhawun Kelly added 17. Nate Eggleton and Demarcus Andrews also scored in double figures, finishing with 13 points and 10 points, respectively.
Joining Thomas in the double-digit scoring category for the Patriots were Rondel Walker (14), Tobias Roland (12) and Kalen Wade (11).