CANEY VALLEY TOURNAMENT SUMMARIES: HOST LADY TROJANS TAKE GIRLS’ TITLE; OTHER GAMES
Caney Valley (Kan.) Lady Bullpup Audrey Regis (5) gets tangled up with Caney Valley Lady Trojan Abby Daigle (00) and her teammate during the Caney Valley Tournament in Ramona last week. The Lady Trojans claimed the tournament title.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
Dewey High School’s Adrianna Hicks (1) battles through Caney Valley defenders during an earlier season game. The Lady Trojans defeated Dewey 41-34 for the Caney Valley Tournament title last week.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
Jan. 30, 2026
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
Following is a roundup of Caney Valley 33rd Tournament games held in Ramona, Jan. 21-23, which started a day early due to winter weather. The championship game between the Dewey Bulldoggers and Riverfield was postponed due to inclement weather.
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GIRLS: Caney Valley 41, Dewey 34
Sweet comes in many flavors.
But few probably tasted better to the Caney Valley Lady Trojans than defeating Dewey for the Caney Valley girls bracket tourney title.
Caney Valley outlasted their fierce rivals, 41-34, in the Jan. 23 final, the last game played before winter’s frosty cold breath and threat of snow invasion caused the tourney to be closed so that teams and spectators could get home safely.
This was the second time Caney Valley and Dewey met within a week. On January 16, Dewey stung the Lady Trojans, 52-41, on Caney Valley’s homecourt. It was the third meeting this season — on December 5, the Lady Trojans handed Dewey a defeat on its homecourt, 55-54.
Needless to say, a swallow of TNT or a buffalo stampede couldn’t have made these teams more fired-up to play each other Friday. Not only was the Caney Valley tourney title on the line, but it was also the rubber match.
“That was a point of emphasis in the locker room before the game started,” said Caney Valley head coach Deric Longan. “We really wanted to win this one.”
After tipoff, the squads tussled like a hurricane wrestling a tornado.
“It was very rough, very physical,” said Longan. “It was very intense basketball. We had two teams that were really good and neither wanted to lose. … Bodies were flying, girls were hustling for every inch they could get.”
At least two times during the phone report he labeled the conflict as a “battle royal.”
As expected, it came down to the final 90 seconds.
“They cut to four inside the final minute-and-a-half,” said Longan. “We were fortunate to hit some free throws down the stretch and that we were stemming the tide a little bit.”
Presley Smith — a transfer from Dewey — led Caney Valley with 26 points, followed by Adesta Henry with six, Harper Watts with five, Abby Daigle with three and Khloe Crawford with one. Smith would be named the tourney MVP while Watts and Crawford both landed on the All-Tourney team.
C.J. Jones pumped in 14 for Dewey, followed by Adrianna Hicks with eight, Cassie Snead with six, Kaci Swan with four and Jaelynn Smith with two.
Caney Valley improved to 15-2 — one of the team’s best-ever starts — while Dewey’s record went to 12-7.
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Dewey High School’s Zach Renfroe (1) and Caney Valley’s Speck Gann (1) block out during an earlier season game.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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BOYS: Dewey 51, Cleveland 45 (ot)
A good old-fashioned tooth-and-nail scrap broke out.
“They kind of jumped out on us quick,” said Dewey head coach Lance Knight about the Jan. 22 semifinal game in the Caney Valley tourney.
Dewey went ahead in the fourth quarter, but Cleveland rallied to tie it up with a three-pointer and force overtime.
Dewey’s Austin Eastman nailed a key trey to open overtime and set the tone for the Dewey win.
“My guys battled defensively,” said Knight.
Karson Johnson pumped in 15 points, followed by Kooper Crawford and Zach Renfroe with 10 apiece. Eastman followed with nine. Tra Hicks and Jay Murguia scored four and three, respectively.
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Caney Valley Lady Trojan Presley Smith (12) goes to the basket against a Caney Valley (Kan.) Lady Bullpup defender during the Caney Valley Tournament held in Ramona last week.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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GIRLS: Caney Valley 65, Caney Valley (Kan.) Lady Bullpups 37
The Caney Valley Lady Trojans fought out of an early hole to thump their namesake opponent from Kansas by 28 points, in the Jan. 22 semifinals in the Caney Valley tourney.
“We gave up 14 points in the first quarter,” said Lady Trojan head coach Deric Longan. “We really locked down in the second half. I thought we played really good defensively. We shot the ball really well. I felt like we rose to the challenge.”
Harper Watts threw in a career-high 27 points to lead Caney Valley, followed by Presley Smith, 13; Khloe Crawford, 10; Adesta Henry, six; Abby Daigle, four; Sydni Brown, three; and Roxy Hawkins, two.
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Dewey High School’s Kaci Swan (25) goes to the basket against Caney Valley’s Harper Watts (2) during an earlier season game.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
Caney Valley (Kan.) Bullpup Traxcyn Garton (5) goes to the basket against Riverfield during the Caney Valley Tournament in Ramona last week.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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GIRLS: Dewey 46, Sperry 35
Energized by C.J. Jones, 17 points; Matney Epperson, six points; and Kaci Swan, five points, the Dewey Lady Doggers grabbed a quality win against Sperry.
“Sperry is very well coached,” said Dewey head coach Michael Sanders. “They are very disciplined and they don’t make a lot of mistakes. They make you work on defense. … We were able to disrupt their game flow a little by full-court pressure.”
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BOYS: Dewey 70, Barnsdall 35
The final score didn’t reveal the whole truth.
“It was kind of a slow start,” said Dewey head coach Lance Knight. “Barnsdall came ready to play. The first half was back and forth. But in the second half our defensive pressure got to them again.”
Zach Renfroe dropped in 15 points, followed by Kooper Crawford with 10 to lead Dewey. Gage Hawkins and Austin Eastman added nine and eight points, respectively.
“It was just kind of both ends of the court,” said Knight. “Everybody chipped in. … It was just another good effort.”
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GIRLS: Dewey 44, Cleveland 35
Poise made the difference.
“Cleveland was very long and athletic,” said Dewey head coach Michael Sanders. “First, I give credit to all my seniors being poised and staying the course with the game plan. The seniors turned it up a notch late in the game.”
The action went back and forth, Sanders said, even though scoring proved a struggle for both teams.
C.J. Jones scored 16 for Dewey, followed by Matney Epperson with nine, Adrianna Hicks with seven and Cassie Snead with six.
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BOYS: Dewey 68, Sperry 40
Twenty-point twins Zach Renfroe and Kooper Crawford flushed 23 and 20 points, respectively, to lead Dewey.
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GIRLS: Dewey 64, Liberty 14
Dewey had little problem against Liberty on the opening day of the Caney Valley Tournament.
“We made some easy buckets off the transition,” said Sanders. “My starters didn’t play in the second half.”
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Barnsdall High School’s Lyndsi Hicks (2) shoots a free throw during an earlier season game. The Lady Panthers and Panthers played in the Caney Valley Tournament last week.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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GIRLS: Barnsdall update
The Lady Panthers (9-10) have been competitive throughout the season despite some rugged opposition.
They finished 1-2 (sixth place) in the Caney Valley tournament, capped by a good effort in a loss to a very good Riverfield team, 57-43.
Veteran area coach Gary Askew (Copan, Wynona and Osage Hills) has taken charge of the Barnsdall girls basketball program and is determined to lead a resurgence to recapture the days of glory during the tenure of legendary coach Joe Gilbert, who passed away in 2020.
“It’s not going to happen overnight,” Askew said, but he hopes the program is pointed in that direction.
“It’s a good start,” he said about this year’s team, which features a roster of 14 players. “This is a great bunch of girls. We’re just trying to build back a program. … We’re hoping to have a strong finish and we’re hoping to have a decent postseason.”
Leading the way are four seniors — Lindsi Hicks, Nellie Holcomb, Rylee Roach and Hailey Gardner.
This gritty quartet “has been averaging eight-to-10-points each,” Askew continued. “We’re pretty well balanced. They’ve been good at developing the younger girls through leadership and skills.”
Among Askew’s impact players in the younger classes are sophomore Abri Gott and freshmen Jade Gann and Journey Sofian.
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Caney Valley High School’s Preston Gipson (13) tries to get past Dewey’s Jay Murguia (2) during an earlier season game. Both teams participated in the Caney Valley Tournament in Ramona last week.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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BOYS: Caney Valley 53, Liberty 36
The CV Trojans snapped back from an opening game loss to power to the consolation championship at the Caney Valley tourney.
Zac Longan and Preston Gipson both scored well into double digits to pace the Trojans.
Logan Thompson, Levi Robles and Speck Gann also contributed strong rebounding and defense, CV head coach Tug Brinker said.
“Our defense was really good,” he added. “We controlled the game from start to finish. … We had only nine turnovers and we were able to run the clock at the end.”
The Trojans got up by as many 20 points, which pleasantly surprised Brinker due to how good Liberty is.
“It was one of our best games of the year,” he summarized.
Caney Valley opened the tourney with a 70-58 loss to the Caney Valley (Kan.) Bullpups. The final margin was misleading. The score had been tied with about three minutes left, 54-54, before the Pups went on a 16-4 run to end the game.
In the consolation semifinals, Caney Valley crumpled Foyil 56-24, to set up the fifth-place showdown against Liberty.
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GIRLS: Caney Valley 73, Foyil 4
“We were able to get on them pretty quick and we went into multiple defenses,” said CV head coach Deric Longan about the win on Jan. 21 to open the Caney Valley tourney.
Presley Smith filled the nets with 23 points, followed by Khloe Crawford with 18 and Adesta Henry with 12 to round out Caney Valley’s double-digit scorers. Harper Watts and Jaycee Tant each contributed seven points followed by Sydni Brown with six.
Crawford scored her career high.