It’s tournament time

High school boys and girls basketball teams began tournament action across the state on Thursday night, including the Putnam City Invitational.

Haley Hurst could have panicked and the game would have gone to overtime.

Instead, Norman’s senior forward grabbed the ball after her shot was blocked and found a way to get another clean shot off. As the buzzer sounded, the shot fell.

Norman beat Tulsa Union 51-49 to advance in the annual Putnam City invitational.

“I was panicking a little bit, but I had to get it and go back up,” Hurst said. “As soon as I grabbed it I knew it was going in. It felt good.”

Hurst finished with seven points, while Nyah Henderson scored 14 and

Kelbie Washington added 13.

Norman (6-1) led 43-36 entering the final quarter, but Tulsa Union rallied to tie the game just ahead of Hurst’s buzzer-beater.

Casady girls basketball coach Marion

Tolon fought back tears as she stood near Bethany’s court.

“It’s hard to have a team score 100 points,” Tolon said.

Class 4A No. 11 Classen SAS had just hit triple digits on independent Casady with a 100-16 victory Thursday morning to open the Bethany Basketball Classic.

Tolon would not say she felt the situation was avoidable, but her reactions made her point known.

“We’ll bounce back,” she said.

With just eight players, Classen SAS (10-1) led 59-12 at halftime and 85-16 after three quarters. It hit the 100-point mark on a steal and layup by sophomore Tatiyana George with 1:39 remaining.

It was only then that Classen SAS ran the clock out to end the game.

“What I normally do is with a minute-and-a-half left in the game is I go to a spread offense,” Classen SAS coach Malcolm

Roberts said. “That’s what we did. I called a timeout and we went into a spread offense.

“People always criticize this, but at the end of the day as a head coach you do the best job that you can for your team without trying to show the other team up.”

Classen SAS was not the only team to win running away. Yukon also beat Star Spencer 99-20 in Chickasha’s tournament.

It wasn’t pretty or easy, but Class 6A No. 11 Deer Creek found a way to claw its way past Class 5A No. 3 Tulsa Washington 55-51 to open Westmoore’s Lady Jaguar Classic.

The Antlers led by 12 with less than four minutes remaining in the game, but Tulsa Washington closed the gap until it ran out of time.

Brynn Mouser led the Antlers with 16 points.

It was Deer Creek’s second game since California commit Lauren Fields moved and enrolled at Shawnee over the holiday break.

Choctaw’s Aliyah Llanusa scored 23 in a 57-43 win over Ponca City to advance in the Lady Jaguar Classic. … Class 2A No. 2 Cashion dominated Okeene 64-20 behind Presley Payahsape’s 13 and Sydney Manning’s 12 in the Three Rivers Conference Tournament. … Blanchard routed Class A power Cyril 48-28 to open Anadarko’s Mid-First Warrior Classic.