The Tuttle Times

Sports

January 21, 2010

After shaky start, Tigers playing well

After a slow start to the 2009-10 basketball campaign the Tuttle Tigers have righted the ship. Fresh off winning the Wellston Route 66 Shootout and a double overtime loss at highly rated Newcastle the Tigers are suddenly the team nobody wants to play.

The season started with blowout losses at home to top 20 teams Blanchard and Newcastle. A bad quarter in each of those losses spelled doom for the Tigers as well as poor free throw shooting and turnovers.

The Tigers then proceeded to lose their next three games before the Christmas holidays by a total of six points to Lindsey, Lone Grove and Pauls Valley. The Tigers were competing but just couldn’t quite get over the hump.

The Christmas break allowed the Tigers to get in some much needed practice time and scrimmages against tough competition. The 2010 portion of the schedule started with yet another tough loss to Bethany by five points. The Tigers were close again against another highly-ranked opponent.

Then came the Wellston Tournament and an 0-6 record. The Tigers were seeded fourth and their first opponent was Oklahoma City Centennial. The game was back and forth the entire game with the Tigers trailing by six after three quarters. With two seconds to go, though, Ty Young nailed a trey to put the Tigers in front and they came away with a 49-48 victory. Tuttle nailed seven of eight free throws in the game and Timmy Williams with 10 and Tanner Koons with 18 joined Young who had 12 with double figure scoring.

The semi-finals pitted the Tuttle cagers against always tough OCS. OCS was rated #6 in 3A and owned a victory over highly touted John Marshall. The Tigers, however, led from start to finish and came away with a 52-36 victory and people started wondering who these guys were. Young and Jordan Henderson were double digit scorers in this one with 18 and 10 and Koons and Ethan Biddy chipped in nine and eight respectively. The Tigers were 15 of 21 from the charity stripe.

That set up the championship with an undefeated Yale and once again the Tigers jumped out to an early lead and heldon for a thrilling 65-61 win and the championship was complete. In this one solid post play from all-tournament selectees Henderson and Koons led the scoring for Tuttle with 20 and 15 while tournament MVP Young chipped in with 9. The Tiger’s record now stood at 3-6.

At Newcastle on Tuesday night the Tigers were facing a Racer squad who had soundly defeated them at home a month earlier. Showing no hangover from playing four tough games the previous week the Tigers jumped out to an early 8-0 lead only to trail at the quarter 18-14, at the half 23-17 and after three quarters 41-31. The fourth quarter was all Tuttle, however, as the Tigers erased the deficit and sent the game into overtime with a 20-10 rally and the game was all knotted up at 51.

The first overtime saw both teams score but two points to send it into yet a second overtime. The Tigers actually took a three-point lead and had possession of the ball at one point in the second extra stanza but Newcastle came back and Young’s three at the buzzer made the final score 60-59, Newcastle. Young, Koons and Henderson led Tuttle in double-figure scoring with 18, 15 and 12 respectively.

After some much needed rest the Tigers hosted top five rated Washington Tuesday then head to the Kingfisher Tournament to play third seeded Chisholm in the first round at 2:45 on Thursday. The Tigers have made steady improvement and need your support next week.

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