Top prep boys teams coming to Lawton

Football may still be on the minds of many Lawton fans but come Thursday there will be some great high school basketball as the Waste Solutions Great Plains Invitational Tournament unfolds at the Great Plains Coliseum.

The tournament features state powers Tulsa Memorial and Northwest Classen that are in the field again along with all three Lawton boys teams including top-seeded Lawton High School.

The event starts Thursday at 2 p.m. with No. 2 seed Northwest Classen facing U.S Grant followed by No. 3-seed Tulsa Memorial facing newcomer Newcastle which is coached by former LHS player Jesse Brown who got his coaching start under Kevin Harrington at MacArthur.

The night session matches the No. 1 seed Wolverines against Putnam City at 6 p.m., followed by a matchup between MacArthur and Eisenhower. The tournament continues Friday and Saturday with consolation games in the afternoon and winner’s bracket games in the night session.

Mac coach Marco Gagliardi is the tournament organizer and has worked hard the past two years to put the event into place and recruit the teams. He explained the Mac-Ike matchup which features two former Highlanders coaching in the game with the hiring of Brandon Kephart to coach the Ike Eagles.

“When the OSSAA went to districts for the largest classes, it has made it where the three Lawton teams are only going to play each other once during the season, so this gives us a chance to play a second game in this tournament,” Gagliardi said. “The district features 14 games for us, so with the OSSAA limiting us to 16 games and two tournaments, it will make it tougher for us to have these intracity games each year so this tournament gives us that opportunity to play each other more often.

“In the past coaches voted on rankings that determined the regional pairings but that system is gone now that we have districts. So, these tournament games won’t affect the playoffs and that’s why teams will be more apt to play in good tournaments because it won’t affect their playoff position.”

All of the teams are either Class 6A or 5A except Newcastle which is Class 4A but that school continues to grow at a rapid pace and is expected to climb to 5A in the next couple of years. Newcastle replaced the Oklahoma City Storm which is a team of home-schooled players.

Gagliardi likes the field and hopes fans will get out and support it well.

“We are fortunate to get state powers like Memorial, Northwest and Putnam City to come to Lawton and I hope fans will turn out and support it,” he said, “And we are excited about Waste Solutions coming on board as our title sponsor and the Great Plains Coliseum has been great to work with on this effort.”

The teams will be playing on a totally different floor.

“The Coliseum just finished a huge refurbishing of the floor and it’s going to be amazing to play on,” Gagliardi said. “I think the players and coaches will enjoy it. They took off all the old logos and it looks great.”

Most of the teams involved played their first games last week with LHS beating Northwest Classen, 65-51, and Mac beating Guymon, 81-50. Ike’s young team had little success against 6A power Westmoore which routed the Eagles, 101-38. Tulsa Memorial opened with a 70-33 over McAlester last week.

LHS returns several athletic players including Pene Vasiagote and good depth and should be a playoff contender.

Gagliardi’s Mac club should be a factor in Class 5A.

“I only have one senior who is going to play a great deal, so we are still young,” he said. “We will start two or three sophomores. Senior Garrett Herrin scored 19 against Guymon and Key’ion Brown had 20 and those guys really gave us some offensive momentum. We got three football players who add some length and athletic ability but it will take them some time to get into basketball condition.”