Lawton High hits State title game

YUKON—Lawton High School found a way to fight off some adversity by forcing turnovers and finally getting some shots to drop to finally subdue Tulsa Memorial, 60-46, Thursday to roll into Saturday’s Class 5A State Championship game at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds.

The opponent will be Tulsa Washington at 4 p.m. Saturday at the final day of games at the “Big House” on the State Fairgrounds.

That matchup wasn’t official until LHS closed the game on a 15-5 run to put away the Chargers.

“We finally made some big shots and we forced them to make some mistakes,” LHS coach Chevis Smith said. “We got into some foul trouble but guys kept making plays.”

One of those in foul trouble was Tavaris Deans who got his fourth foul with 1:36 left in the third quarter with LHS owning 40—35 lead.

And that lead was down to two, 40-38, when Memorial’s Jaden Johnson got a slam at the 1:15 mark.

After that it was pretty much the Wolverines’ show. Pene Vasagote got inside for a layup with 6:52 remaining and when Champ Brewer hit two free throws with 3:54 remaining the lead was at 49-43.

Vasagote added another slam with 3:23 remaining and by then the large LHS delegation was making noise like only a State Tournament championship berth can incite.

There were some mistakes down the stretch but the Chargers were making them as well and matters just kept getting worse.

Vasagote added another layup at the 1:28 mark and that pushed the lead to 10, 53-43, and the game was all but official.

“I said all along that our goal was to just keep getting better each day at practice,” Smith said. “It might be down to the last game but we want to have a good practice and get ready for Saturday. We are peaking at the right time and we can still get better.”

The Chargers had pushed Lawton High to overtime in December but on this night the Wolverines were better.

“When we played them in that tournament our football guys had just gotten out from their season. We knew it would be better when they got in basketball shape.”

And better they are.

Now comes the test with Booker T. Washington and that will be another challenge with the deep club that has had little trouble in getting two wins this week.

“I took this job at Lawton High because I wanted to lead my own program,” Smith said. “I knew this group would be fun to coach and they have done just what we hoped they would do. I got to enjoy this feeling as an assistant at Millwood but this being my first is something special.”