BARTLESVILLE LADY BRUINS WIN FIRST ROUND IN CONOCOPHILLIPS/ARVEST TOURNEY; BOYS FALL
Bartlesville High School’s Titus Huck (10) goes to the basket against Mustang on Thursday during the ConocoPhillips/Arvest Invitational. The Bruins fell 73-54.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
Jan. 9, 2026
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
The road to progress is strewn with slippery stones, mud holes and stretches of smooth striding.
Bartlesville High School boys’ basketball team proved again Thursday that it is on the path that is leading to somewhere good.
True, the Bruins (3-7) absorbed another tough home ‘L’ — just their fourth time this year playing under the Bruin Fieldhouse lights — against Mustang (10-2) in the opening round of the ConocoPhillips/Arvest Tournament, 73-54.
But Bartlesville surpassed 50 points for the first time since early December and rallied from double-digit points behind to take the lead in the second quarter. Take away a sluggish start in the third quarter and the Bruins might well have hammered out a victory.
Meanwhile, the Lady Bruins (6-4) opened the girls’ bracket of the COP/Arvest tourney by rocking Tulsa Rogers, 61-47.
Four Lady Bruins drilled double-digit points — Sami Sheaffer, 15; Kenzie Denny, 13; Emma Zimmerman, 11; and Cadence Gray, 10.
On Friday, the Lady Bruins will play in the girls’ semifinals at 7 p.m. against Life Prep Christian; the Bruins take the court at 2:30 p.m. in the boys’ consolation semis to face Tulsa Rogers.
Following are first-day tourney results and Friday schedule:
GIRLS THURSDAY
Bartlesville 61, Tulsa Rogers 47
Broken Arrow 75, East Central 27
Life Prep Christian 46, Millwood 40
Del City 64, Edmond Memorial 40
—
GIRLS FRIDAY
East Central vs. Edmond Memorial, 10 a.m.
Tulsa Rogers vs. Millwood, 1 p.m.
Broken Arrow vs. Del City, 4 p.m.
Bartlesville vs. Life Prep Christian, 7 p.m.
—
BOYS THURSDAY
Mustang 73, Bartlesville 54
Broken Arrow 67, Yukon 50
Owasso 72, Tulsa Rogers 19
Tulsa Union 72, Tulsa McLain 31
—
BOYS FRIDAY
Yukon vs. McLain, 11:30 a.m.
Bartlesville vs. Tulsa Rogers, 2:30 p.m.
Broken Arrow vs. Tulsa Union 5:30 p.m.
Owasso vs. Mustang, 8:30 p.m.
Following are more details of Bartlesville’s games Thursday and earlier in the week.
———
Bartlesville High School’s Sami Sheaffer tries to get through traffic during Thursday’s game against Tulsa Rogers. The Lady Bruins won 61-47.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
———
LADY BRUINS
Bartlesville — which is coached by Justyn Shaw — bolted to a 9-0 lead to start the game and more-or-less remained in control — although a spirited Rogers team never stopped battling.
Bartlesville won, 61-47.
In addition to Sheaffer, Denny, Zimmerman and Gray, Addison Jones sank eight points and Shaylyn Ishem added four.
Bartlesville led at the end of the first quarter, 16-8, and then went into overdrive offensively to open the second quarter.
A steal and layup by Gray pushed Bartlesville’s lead to 12 points, 20-8. The Lady Bruins widened the gap to 13, 25-12, on a Sheaffer three-pointer.
But, Rogers dug in and trailed by only 11 at halftime, 31-20.
Bartlesville continued to pull away early in the third quarter, leading by as much as 18, 39-21, on a Gray layup.
However, Rogers went on a flurry of scoring to get all the way within four points, 43-39, by the end of the period.
Energized by a couple of quick three-pointers by Jones and Sheaffer, Bartlesville pulled back ahead by 10, 52-42, and maintained a healthy lead to the end.
Earlier in the week, Putnam City North rang up a 77-57 victory against Bartlesville in district action.
Bartlesville stayed close early, thanks to a hot hand by Sheaffer.
But by halftime, Putnam City North led by 22, 47-25, and kept on course for the win.
———
BRUINS
Bartlesville — which is coached by Jake Christenson — displayed more brass than a marching band.
Despite their underdog status, the Bruins rose to the occasion for most of the game. Mustang went on a sizzling run in the third quarter on its way to the 73-54 win.
A high-scoring first quarter saw Mustang stride out to a 21-11 lead.
But starting with a Hudson Eads trey, Bartlesville surged to an 11-0 run to grab the lead, 22-21. Trae Collins scored five points during the run. Just the fact Bartlesville made such a blistering rally against a top-notch team was a testament to its development.
Bartlesville continued to keep it close. The teams then wrestled several minutes for the lead. Hunter Holmes made a driving layup to cut Mustang's lead to 25-24.
Collins would later hit a three-pointer to push Bartlesville back ahead, 30-28. Holmes also hit a layup late in the second quarter to keep it close. Mustang led by four at halftime, 36-32.
Mustang turned things around to start the second half by snapping out to a 22-point lead, 58-36.
The Bruins faced a 19-point deficit at the end of the third quarter, 58-39. There wasn’t much movement one way or another throughout the fourth period.
Holmes finished with 20 points, followed by Collins with 13 to provide the lion’s share of Bruin scoring. Dennis Duncan, Luke Massey, Titus Huck, Eads and Sutton Huff were among others that contributed to the point total.
On Tuesday, Putnam City North downed the Bruins, 67-38.
Once again, the scrap had been more competitive than the final score suggested.
Collins and Holmes were double-digit scorers.
Bartlesville got to within 13 points in the third period but Putnam City came on strong in the fourth quarter to ring up the final tally.