BARTLESVILLE BASKETBALL TEAMS FALL TO MUSKOGEE; BOYS HAVE STRONG SHOWING AT CLEVELAND TOURNAMENT
Bartlesville High School’s Dennis Duncan (12) and Trae Collins (11) go after a loose ball during an earlier season game. The Bruins fell to Muskogee Tuesday evening, however had a strong showing last week’s Cleveland tournament.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
Dec. 10, 2025
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
Bartlesville High School basketball teams didn’t play badly overall Tuesday night.
They just didn’t put it all together in a pair of varsity losses at Muskogee in district games.
The Rougherettes outlasted the Bartlesville Lady Bruins (4-2), 64-47, in a game decided by one period.
Muskogee girls dominated the second quarter, 29-13 to carry a 13-point lead into halftime, 35-22.
In the first, third and fourth periods combined, Muskogee outscored the Lady Bruins only 29-25.
The boys’ game saw Muskogee squeeze out a 58-48 win in a game rife with fouls, cold Bruin shooting and Muskogee transition points.
Even so, the Bruins (3-3) kept within striking distance until the last couple of minutes.
Next up, Bartlesville teams finish up their December schedule with two home doubleheaders next week on Tuesday and Friday.
Following is a closer look at Tuesday’s games at Muskogee:
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Bartlesville High School’s Addison Jones (2) looks to pass the ball during an earlier season game. The Lady Bruins fell to Muskogee 74-57 Tuesday on the road.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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LADY BRUINS
Bartlesville — which is coached by Justyn Shaw — came out firing on target in the first half, including three early three-pointers by Addison Jones. The problem was Muskogee also found the shooting range from the offset en route to its 74-57 win.
The Rougherettes went up by six, 19-13, but the Lady Bruins cut the margin to four points at the end of the first quarter, 21-17, thanks to a 4-0 spurt by Sami Sheaffer, the last two on a layup off a baseline spin move.
But the script changed in the second quarter for Bartlesville, which scored only five points and watched Muskogee roll to a 13-point halftime lead, 35-22 by intermission. Only three Lady Bruins scored in the first half — Jones with nine points, and Sheaffer and Zimmerman for the other 13.
Muskogee continued to widen the gap, getting up by 25 points, 50-25, late in the third quarter. But then Bartlesville made a fiery 10-0 run to get the margin down to 15, 50-35, when Sheaffer buried a trey.
The rally then sputtered and Muskogee went back up by 21 before Bartlesville finished the game on a 9-5 run.
Unofficially, Sheaffer finished with 22 points, followed by Zimmerman with 11 and Jones with nine. The rest of the lineup produced five points — three by Shaylyn Ishem and two by Kenzie Denny. Cadence Gray worked hard on both ends and also made some key passes.
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Bartlesville High School’s Hudson Eads (4) guards during an earlier season game. The Bruins fell to Muskogee 58-48 Tuesday on the road.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesviile Area Sports
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BRUINS
A slow offensive start set the tone for the Bruins in a gritty effort on a path strewn with adversity. Muskogee never trailed in the 58-48 win but the Bruins did tie the score multiple times.
The Roughers burst to an 8-2 lead, but the Bruins scrapped back to tie the score, 6-6, and 9-9, on three-pointers by Trae Collins, set up by sizzling assists from Dennis Duncan.
Muskogee would push out to a 10-point lead, 19-9, early in the second quarter, but Bartlesville snapped back with a 10-2 rally, including a couple of buckets by Duncan and a triple by Brycen Gutierrez.
The Roughers tightened up and clung to a slight lead going into halftime, 25-23.
Muskogee went back up by five, 28-23, but Hunter Holmes’ trey chopped the margin back to two.
The Bruins, who are coached by Jake Christenson, would soon tie the game, 30-30 — only to give up a quick three by Muskogee.
At the end of the third quarter, Muskogee led by four, 36-32.
Muskogee opened the fourth quarter by hitting two technical free throws and soon pushed its lead back to eight points, 40-32.
The Roughers would increase their lead to 12 during the next couple of minutes. But Bartlesville soon cut the lead in half in Sutton Huff’s free throw, 51-45. The Bruins would get no closer, however.
Muskogee drained 5-of-8 free throws in the final minute to keep the Bruins at arm’s length.
Collins and Holmes finished unofficially with 16 and 12 points, respectively. Duncan netted six, followed by Gutierrez and Huff with five each and Hudson Eads with four.
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The Bartlesville High School Bruins participated in the Cleveland tournament last week.
Courtesy photo
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Following is boys game action from last week:
It required 16 games last season for Bartlesville High School’s boys basketball team to reach its third — and final — win.
This year’s squad has reached three wins in five games.
Following a 2-1 weekend showing at the Cleveland tourney the young Bruin squad improved to 3-2.
A huge percentage of the Bruin players are returnees from last year’s ordeal of growing pains and ordeal.
First-year head coach Jake Christenson is in charge of the revival. Many thorny tests against 6A opposition remain.
But on Saturday the Bruins defeated a solid 5A Pryor team to win fifth place in the Cleveland tourney.
Here are more details on the tourney games.
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BARTLESVILLE 87, SPERRY 47
This year’s Bruins’ team seems to be a fast learner.
A day after letting a smaller Metro Christian program hang around too long — until Metro Christian pulled out the 49-47 win — the Bruins (2-2) displayed no slack against Sperry High School.
Taking control in the first few minutes, the Bruins mashed down on the pedal and blew past the Pirates, 87-47, on the second day of the Cleveland Tournament in Osage County.
“The thing I like about today is that I knew we were better than them and this is the first time we’ve taken care of business like I thought we should,” said Christenson.
In fact, Christenson played his third string the entire second half, with the exception of Jackson Barta and perhaps a spot substitution here and there.
Barta responded to his extended playing time in a BIG way. He was the lone Bruin to score points in both halves. He finished with a team-high 14.
“Jackson Barta is a guy becoming hard to keep off the floor,” Christenson said. “He can really shoot the ball.”
Other double-digit scorers for the Bruins included Kim Maire with 12 — all of them in the second half — and Hunter Holmes with 10 (three three-pointers.)
But every Bruin contributed — literally — to the team’s success. Dennis Duncan scored seven but more importantly delivered several alert assists in the first half.
By the final buzzer, 13 Bruins had contributed points. Just as impressively, the Bruins buried 14 three-pointers — spread out among eight different shooters.
It was an overwhelming offensive display. One the best in the past 25 years.
The Bruins were just another three-pointer away from what apparently would have been Bartlesville’s first 90-point game in more than 25 years.
The three closest games to the 90-point milestone since 2000 include an 89-50 win against Claremore (2003-04), and 88-29 thumping of Sand Springs (2003-04) and an 88-54 rout of Liberal (Kan.) (2013-14).
(During the 1989-90 season the Bruins overwhelmed Sapulpa, 90-54. But this reporter didn’t have access to scores from 1990-1999.)
Bartlesville’s most recent 87-point output had been an 87-77 win in 2021-22 against Sand Springs. And the last time the Bruins won by 40-or-more was in 2018-19 (beating Sapulpa, 80-39).
So much for number crunching.
When it came to real crunching, the Bruins brought out their hammer on last week.
Not that Sperry is Broken Arrow or Tulsa Union or even Rejoice Christian. And Bartlesville was likely going to beat Sperry — a gritty and feisty group of scrappers — no matter what.
The vital fact was the Bruins played at and maintained a level near the apex of their potential right now and didn’t settle for playing down to the level of their opponent.
After the opening tip the Bruins came out firing.
Swish! A trey by Barta.
Swish! A trey by Holmes (off a sizzling Duncan assist).
Swoop! A fast break layup by Duncan
Swish! Another Holmes’ three-pointer
Swish! A transition spot-up three-pointer by Duncan.
Just like that the Bruins were up 14-1 — before the halfway mark of the first quarter.
Later in the quarter, Titus Huck scored on three-straight Bruin possessions — including a stick-back off his own miss.
Jaden Turner also scored as a result of a steal to put the Bruins up by 14 at the end of the first quarter, 23-9.
Sutton Huff went on a mini-scoring spurt with back-to-back buckets to open the second quarter.
Bartlesville continued to pile up the points and pull away.
Luke Massey’s fast break deuce extended the margin to 23, 32-9.
Trae Collins then hit back-to-back three-pointers on the back end of the second quarter to make it a 30-point game, 43-13. Hudson Eads hit a driving layup to stretch the lead to 32, 45-13.
By halftime, the Bruins owned a 36-point bulge, 53-17.
Christenson had used at least 10 players in the first half.
He cleared his bench to start the second half and finished up with them with the exception of a substitution now and then — except for Barta, who contributed eight points — two three-pointers and a deuce — in the final two quarters.
Bryce Lee, Skyler Carter and Cameron Chambers contributed 14 points between them as Bartlesville scored a superb 37 points in the second half.
But there was a defensive drop-off with the reserves on the floor — Bartlesville had allowed just 17 points in the first half but gave up 30 after halftime.
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BARTLESVILLE 66, PRYOR 58
Bartlesville’s dominance wasn’t reflected in the final margin.
The Pryor Tigers displayed tremendous fight.
But the Bruins didn’t wilt in the fire of Pryor’s desire.
Carrying the Bruins offense with a combined total of 50 points were Collins, 19; Eads, 17; and Duncan, 14.
Massey dialed in seven points and Huff, Huck and Barta also contributed to the scoring.
Bartlesville bolted to an 11-3 lead but then the game settled into a consistent pattern. Every time the Bruins appeared to be on the verge of breaking the game open, Sperry stiffened and closed the gap.
By halftime the score was knotted at 25-25.
In the second half, Collins, Eads and Duncan took over on the offensive end.
Eads and Collins flushed several treys between them in the third period and Duncan scored multiple fast break buckets to help the Bruins lead by 10 at the end of the third period, 49-39.
Collins opened the fourth period with a triple and Eads followed with an old-fashioned three-point play to stretch the margin to 14, 55-41.
With Duncan and Collins delivering a flurry of points, the lead went to 15 points, 62-47.
But Pryor ended the game on an 11-4 run to narrow the final margin to eight points.
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BARTLESVILLE’S 2025-26 RESULTS
Bartlesville 51, Rejoice Christian 28
Broken Arrow 75, Bartlesville 45
Metro Christian 49, Bartlesville 47
Bartlesville 87, Sperry 47
Bartlesville 66, Pryor 58
Muskogee 58, Bartlesville 48