Newcastle’s Racer girls took losses to Tuttle, 67-36, on Tuesday in regular season play and then to Lawton MacArthur, 55-35, on Thursday, to start the Otho Sweetpea Curtis Tournament.
They had one win at the tournament, setting up an opportunity at the Consolation Championship but came up short in a 45-41 loss to Lawton Eisenhour.
Newcastle versus Lawton High
The first tournament loss set up a game with Lawton High School — a 44-17 victory for the Racers.
Newcastle opened first and second period scoring with outputs of 12 and 17 in comparison to Lawton’s three and five. The Racers pitched in another nine and six in the third and fourth periods to Lawton’s five and four.
Natalie Orr was Newcastle’s high scorer with 12. She was followed by Amber Ellis with 10. Leah Bradley had six points, and Jayden Lassen and Bella Allen each had four. Landyn Giles, Reagan Greenroyd, Aubree Nix, and Emma Allen had two each.
Newcastle versus Lawton Eisenhour
The Racers played Class 5A Lawton Ike to a 45-41 game, losing only the two middle periods of play. Newcastle had scores of 8, 6, 14 and 13, compared to Eisenhour’s 7, 15, 18, and 5.
The 13-point deficit from the second and third periods couldn’t be overcome in the fourth period even though the Racers outscored Eisenhour by eight points.
Newcastle had a balanced scoring effort with several team members contributing. Leading scorers were Jayden Lassen and Emerson Abel, with eight apiece. Natalie Orr had seven points, while Leah Bradley had six. Amber Ellis had five points for the Racers, and Kyla Martinez had three. Reagan Greenroyd, and Bella Allen had two each.
Mariah Hall had 15 points for Lawton while Daniaya Stillwell had 13.
Newcastle versus Lawton MacArthur
Opening the Sweetpea Tournament on Thursday against Class 5A number eight Lawton MacArthur, the Racers got off to a slow start in the first period.
“We didn’t come out with the right mentality to be ready to go from the tip,” Copeland said. “That was the biggest difference in the game. They jumped on us and we placed ourselves in a hole early that proved too deep to dig out.”
The Racers were behind 33-15 at halftime. Newcastle nearly matched Lawton MacArthur in the third and fourth periods, scoring 12-13 in the third, and then eight to nine in the fourth.
Senior Leah Bradley led the Racers in scoring with 15 points, including four from three-point range. Bella Allen had seven points, Reagan Greenroyd had six, Jayden Lassen had five, and Emerson Abel had two points.
Newcastle versus Tuttle
The game started out back and forth against Tuttle with the Tigers in a slight 12-11 lead before they took off on a 17-0 run. That made the score 29-12 and the Tigers never looked back, according to Head Coach Nichole Copeland.
“Offensively, we did some good things, shot 43% from the field, but in the end we did not value the basketball enough, committing too many turnovers and having TUTTLE on page 8 crucial mental lapses and breakdowns,” Copeland said. “We did not execute the defensive game plan very well either. There’s still positive takeaways from this game, but we also must get back to the drawing board and take this opportunity to grow and get better.”
Senior Natalie Orr scored 14 points for the Racers, making five of nine field goals, two three-pointers, and two free throws. She also had three rebounds and three assists. Kyla Martinez, also a senior, played her best game of the year, according to Copeland, with 11 points, two of those buckets from three-point land.
“Her contributions were more than scoring,” Copeland said. “In a game when we were struggling, she was the spark we needed off the bench to get us into our offense, get others involved, and make plays when we had to have them.”
