Mac girls pull away late to get regional win

Once again the old phrase we hear at playoff time, “just win baby” was the rallying call of the MacArthur girls as they pulled away down the stretch to subdue pesky Crossings Christian, 57-39, to advance to the title game of the 5A Girls regional being played in the Big Mac Gym.

The Highlanders owned just a seven-point lead at halftime, 27-20, and they were still in shaky ground after three quarters nursing a four-point lead, 33-29.

But in the final quarter those passes that were off-target earlier in the game started to find a white-clad Mac player and the shots also started to fall and soon this one was packed away with the Highlanders owning a 47-34 lead with 3:40 left in the game.

“We usually hit those passes but tonight we didn’t there in the early going,” Mac coach Otis Gentry said. “Every teams is going to play harder in the playoffs and that bunch did tonight. But once we started clicking it was a different story.”

Mac’s lead was three at one point 35-32, but then the Highlanders went on a 10-2 run to assume control. Mia Curtis started the run on a layup after three sharp passes on a fast break, then Kaylah Brown got a steal and layup and Alysa Mack had a nice jumper from 8-feet and Courtney Thompson had a layup to push the lead to 43-33.

The killing blow to cap the surge was a trey from Kailah Washington and it was 47-34 and this was history.

“I think this will show the girls that we can’t overlook anyone now,” Gentry said. “We have to come back and practice hard the next two days and get ready for the next one.”

That next game will be Friday at 7:30 p.m. against Shawnee which was blowing past Santa Fe South with ease at halftime, 43-10, in the second game Tuesday at the Mac gym.

Mack wound up leading the Highlanders with 10 points but Brown added 8, Thompson 9 and Gracieuse De Souza chipped in 8 as well.

The two other Lawton girls teams lost in regional action Tuesday. Lawton High School lost 89-15 to powerful Putnam City North and Mustang beat Eisenhower, 48-25. Both will play consolation games Friday at 6 p.m.