BARTLESVILLE LADY BRUINS OFF TO A 4-1 START; KNOCK OFF NO. 7-RANKED ARKANSAS TEAM
Bartlesville High School’s Sami Sheaffer goes to the basket during an earlier season game. The Lady Bruins defeated the No.7-ranked 6A team in Arkansas during last week’s tournament in Missouri.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
Dec. 8, 2025
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
Fresh off their great conquest north by northeast in Carthage, Mo., the girls basketball team of Bartlesville High is off to a 4-1 season start.
The Lady Bruin foes in the Carthage shootout hardly knew what hit them.
Bartlesville rang up back-to-back 30-plus point wins and outscored their three opponents, 194-124, to win the shootout, 3-0.
Next up, the Lady Bruins face a district road test Tuesday at Muskogee and will be home on December 16 to face Jenks.
Following are summaries of Bartlesville’s terrific trifecta in Missouri.
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BHS 67, Bentonville (Ark.) 60 (ot)
In what would be their sternest test — against the No. 7-ranked 6A team in Arkansas — the Lady Bruins enjoyed a big boost throughout the main rotation, including a near double-double by Shaylyn Ishem (nine points, nine rebounds) and solid contributions by Cadence Gray (seven points, eight rebounds).
Senior Sami Sheaffer continued her high voltage scoring by lighting up the nets with 21 points. She also pulled down 10 rebounds, handed out four assists and made three steals.
Kenzie Denny added 16 points, four boards and five assists, while Emma Zimmerman drained four points, ladled up six assists, seized three rebounds and made three teals. Jaylin Manley added seven points and two boards.
It was Manley’s three-pointer in overtime that pushed the Lady Bruins ahead for good. When she came on the floor earlier in the game Manley stuck in a reverse layup and knocked down a mid-range jumper to help energize the attack, Shaw recalled.
Veteran Lady Bruin head coach Justyn Shaw lauded his team’s fiery effort.
“They’re (Bentonville players) really, really good,” he said. “They have two or three Division I players. … They can all shoot. … They’re a lot like us, only a little bigger.”
Several Lady Bruins made vital contributions, he added.
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BHS 59, Fort Smith (Ark.) Southside 38
On paper, this should have been a closer game, considering that Southside has been invited to play later this month in the Tournament of Champions at Oral Roberts University.
But the Lady Bruins displayed a hot hand early — including four treys in the first quarter by Sheaffer — to take control.
“They (Southside) had good size. …. We just wore them down,” Shaw said. “We did our full court zone press on made baskets. Everybody got to play.”
Kenzi Stark came off the bench to contribute some important minutes, he added.
Gray turned in perhaps her most productive game as a Lady Bruin, dialing in 13 points and grabbing eight boards.
Sheaffer drilled 21 points for the second-straight games. Scoring seven apiece for the Lady Bruins were Addison Jones, Denny and Zimmerman.
Ishem and Zimmerman cleaned the glass with nine caroms apiece while Denny added six boards.
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BHS 68, Carthage (Mo.) 36
Bartlesville surged past the home team in the Saturday final.
“It was good for us,” Shaw said. “We put the hurt on them. … Everybody played and all but one girl scored.”
Sheaffer harvested 23 points, followed by Zimmerman with 16, Denny with 10 and Jones with 10.
“Sami shot well all tournament,” Shaw said. “She hit over 50 percent of her threes and shot 85 percent from the free throw line.”
But the defense earned big kudos as well.
After leading 27-17 at the end of the first quarter, Bartlesville gave up only 19 total points the final three periods.
“We forced them into a lot of turnovers and we had a lot of transition points,” Shaw said.
He also pointed to Bartlesville’s rebounding tenacity as a key through all three games.
Gray and Ishem averaged seven and six boards per game, respectively, while Sheaffer added five.