Heavener girls, Pocola’s boys triumph

By CRAIG HALL
POCOLA—Heavener’s Taylor Collins made sure her coach is no longer winless at Pocola while the Indians used a huge advantage in free throws to down the Wolves.

Collins scored a career-high 37 points to help coach Jody Fincher win his first game at Pocola after five losses in a 72-49 victory while the Indians shot 45 free throws in their 59-42 win.

In the first game, Collins scored the Lady Wolves first 13 points of the game and outscored Pocola by herself through most of the first three quarters. The win was Fincher's first at Pocola after five losses.

Collins and the Lady Wolves played one of their best games for most of the game in building a 50-24 lead midway through the third quarter.

Pocola finally got hot and made a run, cutting the deficit to 16 early in the fourth quarter before Heavener scored six straight points to erase any doubt.

In the first half, the Lady Wolves’ press caused all kinds of problems for Pocola, which was playing without standout Taylor Martindale, who injured a knee last week.

Collins scored 22 of her points in the first half as the Lady Wolves led 31-14 at halftime.

In addition to Collins’ big night, teammate Skylar Cooper added 13 and Kim Benson had nine.

Amber Conrad led the Lady Indians with 16 points, Megan Severe had 11 had 10 assists while Azia Blesdel also scored 11.

Pocola’s boys also built up a big lead in the first half, eventually leading 31-17 at halftime. Heavener came out in the third quarter and went on a 15-3 run to cut the lead to 34-32 with 7:21 left in the game.

The Indians quickly answered. Austin Parker hit a basket to up the lead back to four and after Koda Glover was called for a technical, Patrick Dixon hit two free throws and Randy Ragland added a basket off the inbounds pass to up the lead to 40-35.

Heavener’s Kevin Smittle hit a three to cut the lead to five, but Dixon hit a three, Ryan Lairamore made two free throws and Dixon had two from the charity line and the lead was back to 12.

After the Wolves’ run, Pocola put the game away with a 23-5 run.

For the game, Pocola made 32-45 free throws while Heavener shot only 13, making nine. The Indians made 17 free throws in the first half and 15 in the second half.

Dixon led the Indians with 25 points while Lairamore had 19. Glover paced the Wolves with 20 while Austin Mead scored 12.

Pocola plays at Hartshorne on Friday before finishing the regular season next Tuesday at Spiro. Heavener closes out its regular season Friday when Stigler comes to town.