Higher boys seeds roll in County

What makes these late-season tournaments important is the mere fact that the playoffs are just four weeks away and the Comanche County Tournament is the last real test to get a feeling for how the playoffs are shaping up.

The four highest seeds all prevailed as the boys hit the Great Plains Coliseum court Tuesday night. Walters, the third seed, decked Fletcher, 51-30; top-seeded Big Pasture beat Geronimo, 63-15; No. 2 seed Sterling routed Indiahoma, 75-32; and 4th seeded Chattanooga beat Tipton, 80-60.

Sterling’s balance was the difference in that game as Gavin Mansel scored 22, Riley Lile and Kaden Wilson both added 19. Joseph Johnson had 11 and Tristan Locklear 10 for Indiahoma.

Chattanooga used its press to produce some easy buckets including 25 points from Cooper Loftin and Jackson Anki with 14. Chris Addy led Tipton with 29 and AJ Gay added 11.

For Big Pasture this is a big week with Class B schools closer to the start of the state playoffs.

“This is a big week for us and we’ve put a lot of emphasis on this tournament,” BP coach Hunter Quickle said. “We’ve finished runner-up the last two years to Sterling and we really want to get the title this time.”

The Rangers won the 2019 and 2020 titles but that was before Quickle took over the program and none of these players were on those clubs.

“We are 14-2 now and this is a big week for us,” he said. “We lost to a Top 10 Duke team at their place and we lost in overtime against Sentinel in the Chattanooga Tournament. I have four really good seniors and I have four juniors, one that starts and three others that come off the bench.”

What’s been the combination that has led to the success?

“Maturity and experience are the big things,” Quickle said. “If we need to we can get down to nine deep.”

The Rangers are blessed with the best size in the tournament with 6-8 Jace Skocelas and 6-7 Hayden Tinsley being imposing figures inside although both missed some point-blank shots Tuesday.

“We kinda struggled to grab the ball it was like a hot potato,” he said. “But when emphasis defense and when you are only giving up 15 or so points a game you have a pretty good chance top get wins. We’re getting better and peaking at the right time. When you have options it makes it easier. The size is a blessing for sure. But we still haven’t played out best in my opinion.”

Skocelas led the Rangers with 14 while Lane Tinsley and Hayden Tinsley each chipped in 12 points.

Walters got slow start

The Blue Devils started the season with a super tough schedule but Coach John Nease thinks that even though he didn’t make that schedule, it has helped his club.

“That was a brutal schedule early,” Nease said after Tuesday’s win. “That’s the way it was set up and it kinda teaches us something if we start with a big head. It can be humbling.

“We lost to Frederick, Am-Po which is ranked high, Fort Cobb and Big Pasture and since then we’ve been improving. I had just one player who didn’t play football, so we got a slow start.

“Of course, you never want to peak too early. I knew those first four would be tough. But until the Christmas break we didn’t have much time to just get together and practice. So after the break we started to show that we were adjusting and moving the learning process along.”

It has also been that with graduation some of the players are in different roles.

“We lost some offensive production so this year Trevin (Reed) and BJ (Palmer) are having to be scorers and they are getting better and better in that respect.”

Reed is just a freshman but added 10 points Tuesday. Palmer led the Blue Devils with 20, and LD Martin added 14.