Chatty stuns L-S in State tourney

OKLAHOMA CITY—Basketball is a game where athletes like Timber Givens can contribute even if they might be the shortest player on the court.

Wednesday night the senior came up with a layup and then drilled a long-range 3-point bucket at the buzzer to end the third quarter and give Chattanooga a spark that led the Warriors to a 38-30 victory over Lookeba-Sickles in the Class B State Tournament at the Jim Norick Arena at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds.

“Everyone is going to remember that three at the buzzer but she also had five steals including that big one right before the three,” Chatty coach Billy Karr said. “This bunch has a knack of somebody stepping up when we need it the most.”

That 5-0 run that Givens provided for Chatty knotted the score entering the fourth quarter and the rest of the way the defense and some clutch buckets gave the Warriors a berth in Friday’s semifinals against the winner of Wednesday’s late game between Arnett and Smithville. That semifinal contest will begin at 3 p.m. at Yukon High School.

The start out of the gate was not good for the Lady Warriors as the playoff-seasoned Panthers jumped out to a 16-9 lead after the first quarter but from that point forward the Chatty defense limited the Caddo County club to just 16 points in the final 24 minutes.

“I told the girls that we’re going to give up some buckets and make some mistakes but I told them to be resilient and just keep grinding,” Karr said. “This is a hard place to play and there are going to be some turnovers and you are going to make some mistakes but just keep moving forward and see what happens.”

As the game progressed the momentum slowly swung toward the Warriors and Givens provided the spark that seemed to bring more defensive pressure from her teammates.

The Panthers had been relying on Rowyn Fite to lead the way but when the Warriors finally started to throttle her drives to the rim the tide really changed.

“Our press did a good job of making them speed up at times and we were able to get them to make some mistakes,” Karr said. “And we also started to get some good looks and made some buckets down the stretch. We have used the press and our trap all season and it seemed to wear them down late in the game.”

After Givens knotted the game at 26-all with her 5-0 run, the other players turned up their games as well. Madelynn Burns hit a trey to push Chatty to a 29-26 lead with 7:14 remaining and Maecy Fischer hit a trey from the top of the key to push the lead to 32-26 with 5:40 remaining.

There was a series of turnovers by both clubs and the next bucket wasn’t posted until the Panthers scored with 3:35 remaining to make it 32-28. From there Givens and Fite traded layups to make it 34-30 with 2:30 remaining.

Once again it was Givens who came through with another big play, stepping in front of a L-S pass and racing to the rim to score another uncontested layup for 36-30 cushion with 1:59 to go and from that point the Panthers never scored again as the large Chatty delegation of fans sensed a big win.

By the time Jaci Cassell stepped to the line to shoot a pair of free throws there was just 36 seconds left and this one was all but official.

All total Chatty forced 25 turnovers and converted 15 points off those mistakes.

While the shooting stats weren’t good for either team, the Warriors had one big stat that helped seal the outcome; a 34-20 rebounding edge.

Cassell wound up leading Chatty with 12 points and Givens added nine, Burns seven and Fischer six.