BARTLESVILLE LADY BRUINS CLAIM THIRD AT COP/ARVEST INVITATIONAL; BOYS WIN CONSOLATION CHAMPIONSHIP
Bartlesville High School’s Shaylyn Ishem (22) battles for the ball during the ConocoPhillips/Arvest Invitational held last weekend in Bartlesville. The Lady Bruins placed third.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
Bartlesville High School’s Hudson Eads (4), Sutton Huff (32) and Brycen Gutierrez (20) react on the bench during the ConocoPhillips/Arvest Invitational held last week in Bartlesville. The Bruins won the consolation championship.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
Jan. 12, 2026
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
Many questions were answered — in a positive way — last weekend for the Bartlesville High School varsity basketball teams.
The Lady Bruins (7-5) — who are coached by Justyn Shaw — recorded two high-quality wins to finish third place in the ConocoPhillips/Arvest Invitational at the Bruin Fieldhouse.
None loomed larger than knocking off Broken Arrow, 37-34, in the girls’ bracket third-place game. This was one of those defining games — earlier this season Broken Arrow thumped the Lady Bruins by 19 points.
The Bruin boys definitely had a weekend to remember — the team’s highest single-game scoring total since 2002-03, the first back-to-back wins in almost 70 games and the first victory this season against a fellow Class 6A team.
Bartlesville boys won the COP/Arvest boys consolation championship and also improved their record to 5-7 — the most season wins in the Bruin program since 2022-23.
“We’re getting a lot better,” said first-year Bruin head coach Jake Christenson. “We grew a lot over the Christmas break.”
The players are completely committed, he said, noting they show up every morning at 6:45 a.m. for an hour shootaround before going to weight lifting.
Next up, Bartlesville is home twice this week — on Tuesday against Capitol Hill and on Friday against Stillwater.
Following are Bartlesville’s game-by-game summaries from the tourney.
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Bartlesville High School’s Kenzie Denny (25) drives through traffic during the ConocoPhillips/Arvest IInvitational held last weekend in Bartlesville. The Lady Bruins placed third.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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GIRLS: Bartlesville 61, Tulsa Rogers 47
Bartlesville bolted to a 9-0 lead — energized by Cadence Gray’s offensive rebound and put-back — to grab early control.
By first quarter’s end, Rogers had sneaked back to within eight points, 16-8.
But the Lady Bruins unleashed a scoring spurt in the first few minutes of the second quarter — including a deuce by Kenzie Denny, a steal and layup by Gray and a three-pointer by Sami Sheaffer to balloon its lead to 13 points, 25-12.
However, Rogers refused to wilt. Bartlesville led by 11, 31-20, at halftime, thanks partly to an offensive board and left-handed stick-back by Shaylyn Ishem.
The Lady Bruins again pulled away with a 16-point lead, 39-23, well into the third quarter. But in what seemed almost a blink of an eye, Rogers sliced the margin back to four points, 43-39, by the end of the third period.
However — in one of those lessons talked about earlier — Bartlesville found a way to regain its momentum, sparked by a three-pointer by Addison Jones. The Lady Bruins soon shot back to a 13-point lead — thanks partly to two free throws by Emma Zimmerman — and cruised to the victory.
Sheaffer, Denny and Gray led the Lady Bruins in scoring, followed by Jones and Emma Zimmerman.
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BOYS: Mustang 73, Bartlesville 54
Despite being a definitive underdog — against what some people believe might be one of the top two or three 6A teams in the state — the Bruins refused to be awed.
Bartlesville kept the game close during the first several minutes, thanks partly to the scrappiness of Titus Huck.
“Titus Huck is such a leader for us,” Christenson said. “You just can’t look at the stat book and understand how valuable he is.”
His Bruin teammate Hudson Eads buried a three-pointer late in the opening period to pull Bartlesville within seven points, 21-14.
Trae Collins scored five quick points — on a three-pointer and a layup off a steal — to narrow Mustang’s lead to two points, 21-19.
A few moments later, Huck knocked down a hook layup, drew a foul and nailed a free throw to move Bartlesville ahead, 22-21, with 6:30 left until halftime.
The teams continued to trade buckets for several minutes. A Hunter Holmes layup off a spin move elevated Bartlesville back ahead, 32-31.
But Mustang finished the period with a 5-0 run and opened the third quarter on fire, soon extending its lead to 21 points, 58-37.
Bartlesville played even the rest of the way, with several players contributing points, including Collins, Luke Massey, Holmes and Sutton Huff.
Holmes scored 20 in what was a kind of offensive coming-out-party for the sophomore.
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Bartlesville High School’s Hunter Holmes (5) drives to the basket during the ConocoPhillips/Arvest Invitational held last week in Bartlesville. The Bruins won the consolation championship.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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GIRLS: Life Prep 51, Bartlesville 35
A second quarter drought — only three points — by Bartlesville would basically be the difference.
Life Prep carried a 27-15 lead into halftime and never looked back.
Bartlesville scrapped valiantly, including a runner by Denny from the middle of the paint to pull Bartlesville within seven points, 27-20.
Life Prep led by 11 after three quarters, 38-27, and Bartlesville never got back within single-digits.
Ishem produced 10 points to help pace the Lady Bruin offense.
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BOYS: Bartlesville 88, Rogers 25
Whew! What an offensive performance!
Fourteen different Bruins contributed points — and 10 Bruins combined to nail 17 three-pointers, a team record.
Holmes and Collins both sank 14 points, followed by Brycen Gutierrez with 10 off the bench and Eads with eight.
Considering the game was played with a running clock the entire second half — and that Christenson emptied his bench like a sailor heaving full pails of water out of a sinking ship — the Bruins would have easily reached the triple-digit mark, perhaps for the first time in team history.
But that wasn’t the point — or the points. What counted was the Bruins did the most they could with the opportunities at hand. They tried to be the best they could.
That’s all that mattered.
Ironically, the Ropers scored the game’s first two points.
That was the seed that reaped the whirlwind.
Collins nailed Bartlesville’s first bucket to tie the score, 2-2, and start the offensive blast.
Holmes and Jackson Barta led the early charge, scoring eight and six, respectively, in the first quarter.
But the unsung heroes from tip to buzzer were Dennis Duncan and Titus Huck. Huck grabbed rebounds and provided inside defense with a blue-collar intensity, while Duncan’s combination of ball handling, laser passes and defensive grittiness fueled the attack.
“Dennis is an emotional player,” Christenson said. “Him coming through on that last play was huge.”
Collins shooting marksmanship — he would lead the team with six made field goals — materialized a real-life matchup nightmare for Rogers.
Other players stepped up. Cameron Chambers hit three-pointers on back-to-back possessions late in the first half; and Gutierrez scored on three-straight possessions to open the third quarter.
The Bruins also welcomed back Jordan Turner — last year’s leading scorer and a sorely needed power forward — from the injury list.
“One thing that has to be said about Jordan is that he never missed a single minute of practice,” during his injury recovery, Christenson added.
Not to be downplayed was Bartlesville’s defensive hustle.
In addition to earning Bartlesville a spot in the tourney’s fifth-place game, this victory was the Bruins’ fourth of the season — their most in three years.
Tulsa Rogers: 10-7-6-2 — 25
Bartlesville: 31-26-12-19 — 88
Bartlesville scorers
Brycen Gutierrez 4 (2) 0-0 10, Titus Huck 3 0-0 6, Skyler Carter 1 (1) 0-0 3, Trae Collins 6 (2) 0-0 14, Hudson Eads 3 (1) 1-1 8, Dennis Duncan 2 (1) 0-2 5, Kim Maire 1 0-0 2, Tytan Berry 2 0-0 4, Hunter Holmes 4 (4) 2-2 14, Luke Massey 1 (1) 0-0 3, Jackson Barta 2 (2) 0-0 6, Sutton Huff 1 0-0 2, Jordan Turner 2 (1) 0-0 5, Cameron Chambers 2 (2) 0-0 6. Totals: 34 (17) 3-5 88.
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Bartlesville High School’s Dennis Duncan (12) moves the ball during the ConocoPhillips/Arvest Invitational held last week in Bartlesville. The Bruins won the consolation championship.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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GIRLS: Bartlesville 37, Broken Arrow 34
Some might be tempted to label this as the Lady Bruins’ most significant win in three seasons. They might be right.
While it certainly wasn’t an offensive showcase, the Lady Bruins’ effort, hustle and defensive intensity were things of beauty.
The teams combined for only 14 points in the first quarter, with Broken Arrow striding to an 8-6 lead. Ishem and Denny both scored in the period for Bartlesville.
Bartlesville took command in the second quarter, outscoring their foe, 14-6, including a buzzer-beating bucket by Denny.
The points came sparingly again in the third quarter. Jones scored nine points to help the Lady Bruins maintain the lead, 31-27, going into the fourth quarter.
Broken Arrow battled to within one point, 35-34, late in the fourth quarter. But free throws by Gray and Zimmerman in the final 35 seconds helped seal the win.
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BOYS: Bartlesville 51, Yukon 50
Duncan put the Bruins on his shoulders to help carry them to their highest-quality win in probably three seasons or more.
As the final seconds ticked down — each one like a thunderous heartbeat to the spectators — Bartlesville trailed, 50-49, with the ball in Duncan’s hands.
Duncan dribbled into the paint and — from about six to seven feet back — put up a fall-away jumper while the pesky arms of defenders swiped at the ball, which arched unobstructed to the hoop and dropped through the cords to put the Bruins on top, 51-50, with about eight seconds left.
The Bruin defense managed to hold on — preventing a Yukon player from hitting a running layup near the buzzer — to reach their fifth win of the season.
Duncan finished with 15 points.
Also wearing a hero’s mantle in the fourth quarter was Gutierrez, who knocked down two three-pointers in the period.
“That’s the best win we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Christenson. “There were moments in that game where we had to come back multiple times.”
In the fourth quarter, the game played out like a tug-of-war with neither side wanting to budge an inch.
The other three quarters were pretty exciting, too.
Early in the game, Collins delivered tne of the best assists of the season when he penetrated into the middle of the paint and made a weak side bounce feed to Duncan for a bucket.
By the end of the first quarter Yukon led, 12-8.
Bartlesville made a big run late in the first half — including a fast break layup by Gutierrez and a deuce by Massey off a Holmes’ assist — to close the gap. Massey scored off an offensive rebound in the final seconds of the first half to narrow Yukon’s lead to 25-23.
Bartlesville quickly grabbed the lead in the third quarter on a trey by Duncan.
Collins then scored back-to-back buckets and Duncan cashed in off an offensive rebound by Holmes, to lift the Bruins to a 34-27 lead.
Yukon came back to go back in front, 39-37. But the Bruins went back on top when Holmes hit a long-distance three-pointer, 42-39, at the third quarter buzzer.
Thanks to Gutierrez’s three-pointers the Bruins kept pace in the fourth quarter. With 26 seconds left, Yukon hit two free throws to go up, 50-49.
But Duncan then hit his heroic shot and Bartlesville gave its fans a happy weekend.
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CONOCOPHILLIPS/ARVEST TOURNEY SCORES
GIRLS
Thursday
Bartlesville 61, Tulsa Rogers 47
Life Prep 46, Millwood 40
Broken Arrow 75, East Central 27
Del City 64, Edmond Memorial 40
Friday
Life Prep 61, Bartlesville 47
Del City 56, Broken Arrow 35
Millwood 53, Tulsa Rogers 20
East Central 40, Edmond Memorial 39
Saturday
1st place: Del City 48, Life Prep 40
3rd place: Bartlesville 37, Broken Arrow 34
5th place: Millwood 60, East Central 41
7th place: Edmond Memorial 69, Tulsa Rogers 44
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BOYS
Thursday
Mustang 73, Bartlesville 54
Broken Arrow 67, Yukon 50
Tulsa Union 72, McLain 31
Owasso 72, Tulsa Rogers 19
Friday
Bartlesville 88, Tulsa Rogers 25
Broken Arrow 56, Tulsa Union 52
Mustang 58, Owasso 56 (ot)
Yukon def. McLain
Saturday
1st place: Mustang 47, Broken Arrow 32
3rd place: Owasso 64, Tulsa Union 43
5th place: Bartlesville 51, Yukon 50
7th place: Tulsa McLain vs. Tulsa Rogers