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| The Henryetta boys and girls added two more championship plaques to their trophy cases Friday night when they won the District 8 titles by defeating Chandler. |
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The playoffs are supposed to be exciting with teams competing for top honors and bragging rights.
That excitement was evident Friday night as the Henryetta Knights won the district championship with a single point difference.
Playing at the HHS gym, the Knights downed the Chandler Lions 38-37 by fending off an attempt to score with only one second left.
The Knights were trying to make the evening complete after the HHS girls won their district contest by an easy 93-49 margin.
Henryetta was up by one with just over a minute left in the game when the Lions tried to keep control for a final goal. The Lions ran the clock down then tried a shot that tipped out of bounds off the Knights' fingers putting the Lions under their own bucket with just over one second left. The attempt to get it out and a shot off failed giving Henryetta the win.
The Knights put together a dozen points in the fourth period for the lead, coming back from a six point deficit, 32-26 at the end of the third period.
The low-scoring game saw both teams having problems finding the bucket with each shooting 36 times. Henryetta hit 15 of those attempts and Chandler got 14 goals. The free throw line was just as unforgiving. Henryetta went to the line eight times for four points while the Lions had nine free throws for six points.
Chet Caywood led the Knights scoring with 19 points including a trio of three-pointers.
Damon Mouss had eight with Blake Johnson and Hunter Brown scoring four each and Grant Ward had three.
The walk-away girls' win was never in doubt with the lady Knights jumping off to a commanding 32-14 lead at the end of the first quarter. It went to 54-29 at mid-game then 72-42 going into the last period.
Henryetta's scoring was highlighted with 30 points from MaKayla Blackbear including 18 from outside the three-point arch. Alissa Taylor dropped in 18 points while Hanna Gouge had 16. Megan Tabor and Aleia Murphy each had 13 pints and Hailey Cook added a three pointer.
Those wins send the HHS teams into the area tournament at Okmulgee Thursday. The Lady Knights will be playing the winner of the Lincoln Christian-Okmulgee match scheduled Saturday evening.
Henryetta's boys will also play the Okmulgee-Lincoln Christian winner in Okmulgee at 8 p.m.
Winners of those games play in the area finals Saturday night.
Photos from the Regional contest:
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