County teams hope to stay alive

When the 2009-10 basketball season started in November, every team dreamed of making it to state and possibly winning the gold ball.

Most of those teams have turned in their equipment for the year. But several county teams are still in the running for a state championship.

Howe’s girls already made the state tournament and play Okarche at 8:30 tonight at the State Fair Arena.

The only county team in the winners’ bracket is Talihina’s boys, which play Haworth Friday at 8 p.m. with a state tournament trip on line.

Photo by CRAIG HALL Heavener's Amber Holt makes a layup as Pocola's Taylor Martindale tries to stop her. The Area Tournament gets under way today for Heavener and several other county schools.

All the other county teams still playing face a win or go home situation.

After falling into the losers’ bracket by losing in the regional championship game, Wister’s boys, Spiro’s boys and Heavener’s girls will try to rebound today.

Wister takes on Davis at 8 p.m. at McAlester. Heavener’s girls seek to advance against Vian at 6:30 p.m. at Muskogee while Spiro plays Valliant at 8 p.m., also at Muskogee.

Poteau’s boys lost the first game of the regional tournament to Roland and beat Muldrow and Idabel to advance to the area tournament. The Pirates face NOAA conference foe Stilwell today at 3 p.m. at East Central University.

Heavener and Spiro both led into the fourth quarter before falling to Sequoyah Tahlequah and Keys.

For the Lady Wolves, the loss snapped a 16-game winning streak and dropped them to 22-3 overall.

Coach Jody Fincher and his team were disappointed, but are ready to play against a tough Vian team, which does not have a great record but is on a roll.

“They are long and athletic,” Fincher said of Vian. “They really run up and down the floor. We’re going to have to get after it. Vian’s a good team. They are there for a reason.”

Despite the rare loss, Fincher said his team is good to go.

“We’re real loose and relaxed,” he said. “This time of the year, we’re not putting in a lot of new things on offense and defense.”

He also knows what it is going to take for the Lady Wolves to win.

“We have to play our game,” Fincher said. “If we get after them on defense and execute on offense, we’ll be tough to beat.”