Building momentum toward the playoffs, the Madill High School basketball teams posted a sweep of visiting Byng last Friday to take the season series for both girls and boys.
Madill girls, ranked seventh in Class 4A, improved to 21-1 after the 47-13 shellacking of Byng as well as dispatching Plainview, 61-31, earlier in the week.
Coach William Bencoma’s boys unit dropped a tough 69-33 verdict to red-hot Plainview before bounding back with the key 60-57 triumph versus Byng.
The Lady Wildcats and Wildcats will each be on the road to start the postseason on Friday when they visit Idabel. Regional tournament action the following week will be back home in Madill.
Girls
While it wasn’t a blazing start against Plainview, the Lady Wildcats were still in front 10-7 after one period and 23-16 at intermission.
It was a different story after the half as Madill reeled off a 17-8 scoring blitz in the third stanza and then E’Niyah and Elexis Holmes combined for 17 points in a 21-7 closing burst for the Lady Wildcats.
E’Niyah pumped in a season-high 18 points to lead the charge while Elexis also chipped in 10. They also got a strong outing from Luci Douglas with nine points, Arlette Andrade pitched in eight with Karma Williams and Chloe Miller adding two apiece.
There was definitely nothing slow about the opening facing Byng as Madill sprinted to a 25-5 edge after one frame and never looked back. The Holmes sisters combined for 18 of that total and didn’t even play but a portion of the third period after the break.
It was 36-7 Lady Wildcats through the half and the lead blossomed to 45-9 after three stanzas.
Elexis wrapped up as the top scorer in that game with 17 points with E’Niyah contributing 13. Andrade scored six, Brown had five, Douglas posted four and Miller added two.
Boys
Cash Cooper poured in 10 first quarter points in the Plainview outing, but Madill still trailed 14-12 heading to the second stanza. That’s when the Indians put the offense into overdrive however and pulled away.
Plainview was in front 37-21 at the half and 62-27 through three quarters.
Cooper was the lone double figure scorer with 14 points for the Wildcats. Ryan Anderson tossed in five, Sammy Duran, Gilberto Grimaldo, Brayden Jowers and Christian Smith all tallied three points with Jagger Rogers chipping in two.
In the Byng outing, the Wildcats once again were down two (16-14) through one period but rebounded in the second frame with a 16-9 scoring flurry led by seven points from Rogers and six from Anderson to take the lead at intermission.
The visitors narrowed the margin to 45-42 at the end of the third despite a 10-point scoring barrage by Anderson in period three. Madill then got three key buckets from Rogers in the final frame as well as a Duran trey to hold the Pirates at bay.
Anderson ended with a game-high 22 points in spurring the Madill offensive attack. Rogers also tallied double digits with 15 and Duran added 13. Cooper pitched in eight and Jaxon Diaz had two to round out the scoring total.