VERDIGRIS — Verdigris spent one quarter prying the game wide open defensively and three quarters wondering why it never stepped through.
After surrendering 22 points in the opening eight minutes, the Lady Cardinals locked Tahlequah down completely in the second quarter, holding the Lady Tigers scoreless.
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The problem? Verdigris couldn’t make the offensive breakthrough that moment demanded, and the missed opportunity ultimately defined a 53-28 loss Thursday morning in the first round of the Mother Road Classic at the Verdigris Activity Center.
Tahlequah improved to 3-6, while the Lady Cardinals fell to 4-5.
The early damage came quickly.
Verdigris committed 11 turnovers in the first quarter alone, fueling a 19-5 Lady Tigers run that ballooned into a 22-8 deficit. The Lady Cardinals trailed by as many as 17 in the opening period as Tahlequah capitalized on nearly every mistake.
Then came the defensive turnaround.
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Verdigris clamped down in the second quarter, forcing missed shots, contested passes and empty possessions. The Lady Tigers didn’t score a point in the frame.
“We finally actually started listening to the game plan and taking away some of their continuities,” Verdigris coach Mike Buntin said. “They were trying to clear stuff out and take advantage of our base defensive system, which is to force everything baseline and then eliminate the help by setting screens on the backside. We were trying to force them into the screen, and we started doing that in the second quarter. It also helped that we stopped turning the ball over. We gave them 8 or 10 points in a row just throwing it to them on the backside of their press, and we weren’t running our press break right. And their best two players were in foul trouble, but we just couldn’t take advantage.”
Yet despite the defensive effort, the Lady Cardinals managed only 5 points of their own — all from Adelaide Patterson — and went into halftime still trailing 22-13.
That inability to capitalize proved costly.
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Tahlequah erupted after the break, knocking down 5 3-pointers in the third quarter alone. By the end of the period, the Lady Tigers had posted their second 22-point quarter of the game, while Verdigris had just 22 points total.
“We live and die by the 3, unfortunately,” Buntin said. “Live by the sword and die by the sword, and tonight we didn’t shoot it well. They had the two 6-footers at the basket, so our slicers — our girls who are good at getting to the rim — couldn’t score. We missed 7 free throws in the first half, I think we shot 14% from 3 and 16% in the paint at the basket. It doesn’t matter how well you play defensively if your efficiency offensively is going to be that low.”
The lead swelled to 22 by the end of the third, and the outcome was effectively decided.
Carsyn Gilbert led Tahlequah with a game-high 21 points and 2 rebounds, while Lakyn Adams added 13 points and 4 boards. Raylee McCarter posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, reaching that milestone with a 3-point play at the 1:48 mark of the third quarter.
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The Lady Cardinals were paced by Patterson’s 10 points, with Rilyn Stringfellow adding 7 points and 4 rebounds. Abbi Rairdon chipped in 3 points and 4 boards, while Jackie Beauchamp and Addie Russell each contributed 4 rebounds on the glass.
The Lady Tigers finished with a 7-4 edge in 3-pointers and forced 21 Verdigris turnovers, repeatedly turning defense into momentum-swinging offense.
The Lady Cardinals moved into the consolation bracket Friday afternoon and faced Jay.
“We have five juniors, but we still have a lot of freshmen who are having to play big roles,” Buntin said. “We just gotta continue to progress from there and keep building them up. If we shoot well and make free throws and we do some things a little bit differently, it’s a different game. I know it doesn’t look like it because it’s a 25-point loss, but you try to simplify it.”
