Lady Indians win district championship

The Comanche basketball teams got the postseason underway with the district tournament at Lone Grove last Friday. The Lady Indians won the district championship, while the Indians came up a little short in their game against the Longhorns.

The Lady Indians (18-4) will play Marlow (20-4) in the regional semifinal at Lone Grove on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. The winner will advance to Saturday’s championship game and be guaranteed a spot in the area tournament. The Indians (8-14) have a little tougher road to the area tournament. They need to get three wins in the consolation bracket. On Thursday, the Indians face Harding Fine Arts (4-19) at 3 p.m.

Lady Indians 57

Lady Longhorns 46

Comanche’s offense is coming back to life and it could not be happening at a better time as the Lady Indians survived an onslaught of three-pointers by Lone Grove to win the district championship. It was the third time the two teams have played this season with Comanche winning all three.

The game was tied twice and had three lead changes before Comanche’s Kenley Lemons drained a three-pointer with 43 seconds left in the first half that gave her team the lead back for good. It also was the start of an 8-0 run to close out the half that gave the Lady Indians a six-point halftime lead (29-23). The Lady Indians also got a boost from junior Gracee Miller, who scored nine of her team’s 16 points in the quarter. It was the momentum shift Comanche needed as they steadily built on the lead in the second half.

“When you start making threes that helps a lot (to get the offense going),” said Megan Robbins, Comanche head coach. “I think our shooters are finally getting their confidence back and their groove back. We told them the whole time, it’s not just a slogan, just keep shooting, you’re going to come out of it.”
Lone Grove made nine three-pointers in the game that allowed them to keep pressure on Comanche. The Lady Indians countered with six of their own, which kept them out front.

The Lady Longhorns cut the lead to 29-26 to open the third, but Comanche answered with a 10-0 run to push the lead into double digits. They went on to take a 45-33 lead into the final quarter.

Lone Grove got as close as 48-39 in the fourth quarter with back-to-back three-pointer. Comanche senior Caity Blair responded with a three-pointer that stopped the Lone Grove rally.

“The first couple of games (against Lone Grove) we got a ton of layups because they were being overly aggressive,” Robbins said. “They didn’t do as much and when they did start to do it, we started getting some layups. It’s hard sometimes when you have a day off of school and getting a little out of their routine. I think that may have affected us a little bit, but I challenged them a little bit at the beginning of the third quarter and they responded.”

Scoring

Comanche (18-4): Gracee Miller, 21; Kenley Lemons, 12; Caity Blair, 9; Kynli Morris, 6; Kylie Roden, 3; Bri Keeling, 3; Kamrey Rendon, 3

Lone Grove (7-16): Elizabeth Howard, 14; Emerie Adams, 12;Erica Imhof, 11; Kylie Castonguay, 4; Malea McMurtrey, 3; Majesty Brown, 2

Longhorns 50

Indians 39

After splitting the two regular season matchups, Lone Grove won the rubber match, leading from start to finish.

Comanche got off to a slow start. Mason Kulbeth made a basket at the 5:46 mark of the first quarter and it would be the only field goal for the Indians, who found themselves down, 14-3, heading into the second quarter.

The Indians were able to get the offense going in the second quarter, outscoring the Longhorns 11-8 to cut the lead to 22-14 at the half. Comanche got as close as six points in the quarter.

Things were looking up for Comanche at the start of the third. Dillon Ellis scored the first points of the quarter, followed by a three-pointer by his brother Myles Ellis that got the lead to 22-19 with 6:13 left in the third quarter. Lone Grove, however, answered with five straight points. A Cason Morris basket cut Lone Grove’s lead to 29-23 with 2:38 to go in the quarter, but the Longhorns would close out the quarter on a 10-0 run and the Indians would not get closer than nine points in the fourth quarter.

Scoring

Lone Grove (15-7): J.J. Miller, 16; Andy Dunham, 9; Nick Kelch, 7; Kyle Miller, 5; Bliss Newton, 4; Caden Gilmore, 4; Aiden Hale, 2

Comanche (8-14): Myles Ellis, 13; Dillon Ellis, 8; Landon Ellis, 5; Cason Morris, 4; Corbin Bowen, 2; Mason Kulbeth, 2; Xander Dodd, 2; Hunter Lassley, 1; Jeremy Crisp, 1