While Dale once again rolled to impressive championship triumphs, the Kingston High School basketball teams saw mixed success in this year’s weather-delayed New Years Classic event, which wrapped up on Monday.
The Lady Redskins scored an impressive 39-32 win over Latta in the opening round before running into the buzzsaw known as Dale, falling 68-27 in the semifinals.
Coach Chad Rumer’s squad struggled to get in offensive rhythm against a strong Broken Bow team, dropping a 45-36 verdict in the girls’ third place contest.
Ontheboys’side,Kingston slipped to Sequoyah Tahlequah, 55-43, but bounced back for a 56-34 throttling of Atoka.
The Redskins then put on a three-point shooting clinic in the consolation title match against Latta, sinking 11 treys as a team on the way to a 65-29 shellacking.
Girls
In the Latta win, Kingston trailed throughout the opening half with the Lady Panthers holding a 12-7 cushion throughonestanzabeforethe hostsnarrowedthemarginto 17-14 at intermission.
The third quarter was a totally different story as Coach Chad Rumer’s club topped its first half offensive production in that frame alone with a 17-9 burst to take the lead which they never relinquished. Taylie Wiebener scored all seven of her points in that period while Jaci Herndon popped in five as well.
That proved to be enough as Kingston maintained the margin throughout the final frame.
Joley Heydon and Cassidy Walker led the scoring push for the Lady Redskins with nine points apiece. Avery Ludrick,WiebenerandHerndon all tallied seven points.
Top-ranked Dale asserted its power right out of the gate, outscoring Kingston 19-9 in the first stanza and 19-5 in the second for a commanding halftime edge. That advantage ballooned in the third period as well with the powerhouse Lady Pirates putting together a 21-3 scoring burst.
Walker and Destry Davis pitched in four points apiece for the Lady Redskins while Herndon, Audrey Hughes, Ludrick, Riley Markovich and Taylie Wiebener tossed in three apiece.
After being unable to participate on Saturday due to the winter weather, Broken Bow came back to take control early in the third place matchup.
The Lady Savages led Kingston, 11-9 after one period and 26-18 through the openinghalf.Kingstonfought back to narrow the gap to 3530throughthreequartersbut couldnevergetoverthehump in the final frame.
Ludrick was the lone Lady Redskin to reach double figures with 11 points. Walker addednine,Herndonchipped in six with Coby Davis and Wiebener both totaling three. Joley Heydon ended with two points.
Boys
In the Sequoyah opener, Kingston rolled to a 16-8 advantage through one period before watching the visitors come storming back.
Sequoyah claimed a onepoint halftime lead with a 19-10 scoring burst and then outscored the Redskins 13-6 in taking control.
Brock Rumer had a solid outing with three treys on the way to 13 points as one of three double figure scorers. Blane Henry contributed 11 and Hayden Seeney also checked in with 10. Lander Burkhalter added seven with Hudson Everhart pumping in two.
Much like their seasonopening contest, the consolation semifinal matchup with Atoka was all Redskins from the start.
Kingston sprinted to the 14-2edgethroughonestanza, extended it to 34-15 at intermission and 52-29 at the end of three stanzas.
Seeney posted the monster scoring effort with 20 points as Sam Walker also clipped double digits with 12. Everhart and Ewan Weaver contributed five each, Kase McAdams and Reid Patterson bothscoredfour,TyJones added three, Henry had two and Burkhalter tallied one.
In the Latta finale, Seeney was virtually unconscious from the perimeter while sinking six three pointers.
Seeney poured in all 14 Kingston points in the opening frame as they led 14-7. Another barrage in the second stanza extended the margin to 36-16 at the half.
Kingston continued to pour it on from the perimeter in the third and fourth quarters, out slugging the visitors in each period.
For the game, Seeney scorched the nets for 28 points with Sam Walker also hitting double digits at 10.
The Redskins also picked up eight from Burkhalter, six by Henry, five from Rumer and Jones while Everhart tallied three points.