AREA BASKETBALL FROM THE WEEK OF JAN. 19-24; NOWATA, PAWHUSKA, SOUTH COFFEYVILLE, WESLEYAN CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Nowata High School’s Brayson Richards (13) goes up for a rebound with South Coffeyville’s Gabe Arrendondo (23) and Max Adock (5) during an earlier season game.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
Jan. 28, 2026
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS
Following are reports from the week of Jan. 19-24.
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BOYS: WCS 74, Nowata 67
It stands to reason that if you have a barnburner there’s got to be some fuel.
Wesleyan Christian School had plenty of Hay to burn — or burn Nowata on Jan. 20.
Owen Hay dropped in a career-high 27 points to pace the Mustangs to one of their top wins of the season.
James Wisdom added 14 points and Hank Siemers fashioned a double-double (10 points, 12 rebounds).
Nowata, meanwhile, boasted its own scorcher in Talon Thompson.
“He’s a great player,” WCS head coach Steven Cooks said about the Nowata sharpshooter. “He made some great plays down the stretch. He scored 22 points in the second half and finished with 30.”
WCS relied on its defense to wrap up the win.
“It came down to making stops and getting free throws,” Cooks said. “In the second half we got the ball inside a little bit.”
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BOYS: WCS 47, Chelsea 44
Carter Kennard and Owen Hay filled the net with 14 and 13 points, respectively, to spearhead the WCS Mustangs’ charge on Jan. 21.
Kennard “is a junior that missed his freshman year,” Cooks said. “He’s been starting for most the year. … His thing is really defense but he’s a good shooter.”
For the second-straight game WCS hung on thanks to late stops and success at the charity stripe.
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GIRLS: WCS 44, Nowata 43
WCS edged Nowata 44-43 on Jan. 20. WCS led at halftime, 23-17. WCS high scorers were Lily Miller (19), Kori White (16), and Miranda Hadrava (4). Nowata's Jailyn Trotter scored 19, while Lyrique Walker added 17.
WCS won two games in the Mounds Tournament, 79-36 over tourney host Mounds and 56-37 over Summit Christian. WCS lost its opener to Chelsea 42-26.
-By Becky Burch
Wesleyan Christian School’s Hank Siemers (23) goes to the basket durinng an earlier season game.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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GIRLS: Pawhuska 57, Olive 16
Make that 13 wins in a row for the Lady Huskies.
This one — in the Jan. 21st Yale tourney opener — was a rare breather.
Pawhuska surged to leads of 15-3 at the end of the first quarter and 51-14 through three quarters.
“We got to play everybody,” said Pawhuska head coach David Lampton.
Three freshmen played major roles in the scoring.
Brynlee Rumsey pumped in 17 points to lead Pawhuska while Brylee Reese scored six and Peyton Henley scored four.
The team’s season leading scorer Brooklyn Miles set up other girls to score.
“It was good that we got to play everybody,” he said. “We were not trying to run the score up.”
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GIRLS: Pawhuska 43, Sperry 33
In semifinals of the Yale tourney on Jan. 22, Pawhuska rallied from an 18-11 halftime deficit to win by 10.
The victory earned a championship showdown against Pawnee, postponed due to the weekend’s extreme winter weather.
Brooklyn Miles scorched the nets with 25 points to lead Pawhuska while Emillie Curry grabbed a bunch of rebounds, said Pawhuska head coach David Lampton.
Sperry maintained early control with their passing game, Lampton said.
Pawhuska countered in the second half by applying full-court man-to-man pressure, leading to a pair of buckets by Mylee Jensen.
The Lady Huskies overtook the lead at 29-27 on a three-pointer by Audi Miles.
Pawhuska is scheduled to play four games next week, weather permitting.
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Boys: Pawhuska 52, Yale 42
The Pawhuska Huskies (9-7) won two games in the Yale Tournament Jan. 21-22 to advance to the championship. In the semifinal game, they downed host Yale, 52-42.
Pawhuska started strong in the first quarter, 11-4. Yale came back to lead 18-16, but the Huskies went on an 11-0 run going into halftime leading 19-18. Dax Godsey led the Huskies with 14 points, three of those treys. Other scorers for Pawhuska were Jenson Snodgrass (13), Jadon Spicer (13), Antwine Hamilton (4), Tripp Walker (3), Blaine Manning (3) and Darien West (2). As a team, the Huskies shot 53% from the field and had 30 rebounds, eight by Spicer.
The Huskies defeated Woodland 49-28 in the opening round of the tournament. The championship game was postponed due to a winter storm. The game is scheduled for Jan. 28, but at deadline it could not be confirmed if the game will be played due to snow still on the roadways.
- By Becky Burch
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Wesleyan Christian School’s Carter Kennard (3) keeps an eye on the ball during an earlier season game.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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BOYS: Hominy 49, WCS 46
For the want of a few more inches and a little less scoring woes the Wesleyan Christian School Mustangs could have made it seven wins in a row.
But Hominy yanked out the win in the semifinals of the Mounds Tourney on Jan. 22.
WCS fell to 13-5 and 7-3 since Christmas.
“They (Hominy) were really solid,” said WCS head coach Steven Cooks. “They had two really big posts, who were about 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-5, real big strong guys. They outsized us overall.”
In addition, “In the middle of the game we went on a little bit of a drought scoring,” Cooks added.
Despite those two challenges, the Mustangs nearly nipped Hominy at the wire.
“We fought hard,” said Cooks. “I thought we defended well overall.”
Owen Hay harvested 18 points, followed by Wyatt Williams and Hank Siemers with seven apiece for WCS.
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South Coffeyville’s Aiyanna Arredondo (10) makes a free throw during an earlier season game.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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South Coffeyville boys
The Lions are 1-8 overall, according to OSSAA rankings. Their only win came at the Copan Shootout in December, a 46-44 defeat over Prue. The Lions suffered a close 40-37 loss to Foyil at the beginning of the season.
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South Coffeyville girls
The Lady Lions, coached by Jeremy Rogers, are 7-10. Two of their losses came in overtime games, one to county rival Copan. South Coffeyville earlier defeated Copan twice, 37-26 and 48-36.
- By Becky Burch