LHS turns away Mac in tourney semis

Lawton High School used a Tavaris Deans layup with 32 seconds remaining and a pair of Champ Brewer free throws with 4.6 seconds remaining to finally subdue MacArthur, 61-58, Friday in the semifinals of the Waste Solutions Great Plains Coliseum Tournament.

The game dragged on for more than 2 ½ hours as there were 70 fouls called on the two teams and in the late going there was a trail of players leaving the floor with five fouls.

The Wolverines return Saturday at 7:30 p.m. to face Tulsa Memorial in the title game. Memorial beat Newcastle, 65-49, in the other semifinal contest. The Racers and Mac will battle at 6 p.m. for third.

The afternoon begins with Eisenhower facing US Grant at 3 p.m. for seventh, then Oklahoma City Storm faces Northwest Classen for fifth. Northwest Classen beat Grant, 67-31, while the Storm beat Ike, 71-48.

The LHS-Mac game drew a large, rowdy crowd and neither side was happy most of the game. Both teams struggled to get any flow on offense as foul after foul sent a continuous parade of players to the free throw line. From an early 10-point lead, LHS was unable to keep anything going and Mac started to hit some long-range bombs that kept them in the game.

Deans finished with 12 points, Pene Vaisagote added 12 as well and Auly Young chipped in 16. Mac was down three at halftime, 27-24, but down the stretch the Highlanders forced some turnovers and was able to get something going in the paint.

AJ Vaughn scored 14, and Tim Taylor produced 14 himself, hitting 10-of-14 from the free throw line.

Mac got one final chance at forcing overtime when Josh Rushing was able to advance the ball near mid-court before launching a long attempt that came up short.