Watonga High School boys’ varsity basketball soars into the postseason after the Eagles won two pivotal home games to close out the season on Feb. 14 vs. Fairview High School and Feb. 17 vs. Mooreland High School for Senior Night.
EAGLES 55, FAIRVIEW 49
Watonga absolutely needed a win on Friday night vs. Fairview and they certainly delivered, especially down the stretch.
The Eagles and Yellowjackets were neck-and-neck for most of Friday’s contest until Watonga was able to pull away late and lead by as many as nine points in the fourth quarter.
Superb three-point shooting, efficient ball movement and strong defense will continue to be three major keys for the Eagles going forward.
EAGLES 72, MOORELAND 62
Six Watonga seniors were honored prior to Monday night’s contest vs. Mooreland: guard Stoney Boeckman, guard Elijah Kearney, forward Wade McCrary, guard Kyler Parham, guard Blaine Stratton, and forward Sebastian Whiteshirt.
The Watonga boys used a stellar third quarter of basketball to pull away from Mooreland after the game was tied 35-35 heading into halftime. In the third quarter, head coach Ty Hussey’s Eagles went on an offensive surge and outscored the Bearcats by an impressive 22-8 margin.
Now at a respectable 12-10 this season, the Eagles will get a bye in the first round of the Class 2A Area 1 District 3 tournament on Friday and will play the winner of Fairview vs. Tonkawa High School at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22 since Watonga finished with the best record amongst the three teams.
Watonga is guaranteed to advance to either the winner’s bracket or consolation bracket of the regional tournament on Thursday, Feb. 27 up at Ponca City High School depending on how they play this Saturday night.
Be sure to visit the official OSSAA website to view all the girls’ and boys’ brackets for each class this upcoming weekend.
Check out next week’s sports section of the Watonga Republican for more Eagles’ basketball and other updates with athletics.
Andrew Salmi can be reached at Sports@WatongaRepublican.com or by phone at (580) 623-4922.