If the W’s align this week, head basketball coach Jessie Brown could hit his 100th win at the helm of the Newcastle Racers.
Brown began the new season with an 87 win, 48 loss record for his five years here. The Racers needed 13 wins to hit the 100 games won mark, and on Monday afternoon their record was 11-7.
Newcastle was scheduled to play Clinton on Tuesday and then Elk City Friday.
It is possible that win 100 could go down this week.
Coach Brown started coaching the Racers in 2018 with his first win on November 30, 2018, against the Purcell Dragons. The Racers won that game, 50-49. Brown is now in his sixth season in 2023-24. All five years he and the Racers have won Districts, and all five years his teams have made it to the Area Tournament. Brown is the only coach who has led the Racers to a State Tournament playoff game.
Brown has never had a losing season at Newcastle. In the 2018-19 season, the Racers were 16-13. In 2019-2020, the Racers were 17-11. In the 2020-2021 season, Newcastle went 14-10. In 2021-2022, the Racers managed 16-9. And then in 2022-2023, Newcastle extended its season going 245.
Coming off a third place finish at the Otho Sweetpea Tournament, Newcastle rolled over Tuttle, 70-58, but then took the loss to Weatherford, 57-38.
Tuttle came out early in the January 23 game to take the early lead, 18-16, in the first period. The Racers, however, netted 21 in the second period while holding Tuttle to only 10. A 19-17 battle in the third period had Tuttle scoring more points, but not enough to overcome Newcastle’s lead. The Racers then finished off Tuttle with a 16-11 score in the fourth period.
Alec Shumard led Newcastle scoring with 19 points, three of those coming from three-point range. Bobby Burrell had 18 points, and Antonio Brown had 17. Jon’tre Sloan had 8, Alan Price had 5, and Chapman McCully had 3. Chad Everett led Tuttle scoring with 17 points.
