Walters girls, Sterling boys win titles

You always hear football coaches saying, “offense wins games but defense wins championships” and after 36 minutes of basketball Walters girls used their defense to finally subdue Chattanooga, 43-38, to claim the Comanche County Tournament title Saturday at the Great Plains Coliseum.

There was not nearly as much excitement in the boys title game as Sterling broke fast out of the gates and coasted to a 60-45 victory over top-seeded Big Pasture. The taller Rangers were unable to handle the pressure of the Sterling defense that enjoyed a bevy of turnovers and converted buckets after most of those.

Sterling had a comfortable 44-28 lead after three quarters but BP turned up the pressure early in the fourth to try and mount a comeback. But with Riley Lile and Gavin Mansel able to penetrate in the middle and get easy shots, the lead remained constant down the stretch.

An incident with 5:54 left in the game resulted in two quick fouls on Mansel, one a regular foul and after the call he and BP’s Hayden Tinsley were both called for technical fouls, sending Mansel to the bench for the game with his fourth and fifth fouls.

After that flurry, Lile responded with a nice move in the paint for a 52-32 lead with 4:51 remaining.

The Rangers did cut their deficit to 11, 53-42, with 2:30 remaining but Sterling was able to get out fast on two straight possessions to built the cushion back to 60-44 and after that the Tigers were able to get a defensive rebound and run the final minute off the clock.

“We knew when they got in that 2-3 zone that we needed to run our offense because out of that our shooters were able to get free for some good looks,” Sterling coach Jayson Wilson said. “For about the first 10 games I called the sets on every possession but once this bunch learned what they needed to run they’ve done a really good job executing our offense and getting good looks.”

The win was big for the Tigers and not just that it marked the third straight for the Tigers and first for Wilson who took over for Trent Parrish who took over as the superintendent.

Mansel finished with 16, Tukker Hughes added 17, and Lile added 12. BP was led by Lane Tinsley with 17 which is well below his average.

The win could help Sterling’s bid to host a district.

“We are in the rankings at 20th so this win should help us move up some,” Wilson said. “We’ve been on a pretty good run and won the tournaments we’ve played in so that should help our cause.”

Defense sparked Blue Devils

Going into the girls title game Walters coach Chris Gates had one major goal on defense, not give Chatty’s Maecy Fischer any open looks.

“We had charted a bunch of their games and she was shooting like 45 percent on her threes, so we wanted to stick with her and make her work for any shot she made,” Gates said. “Going in that’s what we had to do to beat them.”

Fischer ended up taking two long-range shots and got one to drop in the third period.

But it wasn’t just Fischer that was being hounded all night as the Blue Devils also throttled most of the other top scoring threats for Chatty.

However, the Chatty defense was up to the task much of the game, limiting the Blue Devils most of the game but after the two evenly-matched clubs got to overtime tied at 32-all, Walters just made more plays.

The first big play came with 29 seconds left in the overtime when Kayla Meason saw an opening and raced to the rim for a layup and she was fouled in the process. Meason calmly drilled the free throw and Blue Devils owned a 39-34 lead.

Chatty did its best to rally as Madelynn Burns worked inside for a layup with 1.8 seconds remaining to cut the Walters lead to three aat 41-38. Chatty skipper Billy Karr called time with hopes of forcing a turnover and getting off a last-second three to try and tie the game again.

But instead of a turnover Chatty was called for a foul and Devyn Edmonds calmly walked to the other end of the court and sank two free throws to set off a big celebration by the Blue Devils.

Kynlee Edgmon led the way for Walters with 14 points while Meason added 10. Burns and Timber Givens shared the scoring load for Chatty with 10.

The win may have gotten the Blue Devils more than some hardware.

“We are ranked pretty low but we hope we can climb a little with this win,” Gates said. “I think they were ranked, so any time you beat another ranked team its helps so we are hoping coaches notice this win.”

Tipton sweeps consolations

Saturday’s busy schedule began in the morning as teams fought for hardware and it was Tipton taking home both consolation bracket crowns. The Tipton girls used another big game from Jayla Fierro who scored 23 points in a 60-47 victory over Fletcher. Fierro hit six treys in the first half and Fletcher was unable to rally. Angie Manriquez added 13 for the Tigers while Sydney Ross scored 14 for Fletcher.

The boys game between Tipton and Fletcher was much closer but in the end the athletic Tigers held on for a 43-38 victory. Big, stout Chris Addy led the Tigers with 10 and Devin Nunley chipped in 10 as well. Fletcher had seven players score with Canyon Hardzog scoring eight to lead the way.

Taking third in the girls bracket was Geronimo which beat Sterling, 49-36, in a rematch of last year’s title game that the Blue Jays won. McKenzie Huffman led the way for Geronimo with 28 points and sister Abbey Huffman added 10. Ava Alexander led Sterling with 14 and Katie Milam added 11.

Chattanooga boys claimed third in the boys bracket with a 58-46 victory. Nine Chatty players scored with Jackson Franks leading the way with 23 and Cooper Loftin added 11. Trevin Reed had another big game for Walters, scoring 16.