Dec. 20—Down by as much as 20 points in the second half, the McAlester Lady Buffaoes were able to come all the way back to make it a six-point game on the back of sophomore Kambree Zummer’s team-leading and career-high 18 points.
However, foul trouble ultimately got the best of the Lady Buffaloes (0-4) as they were simply unable to stop the Pryor Lady Tigers (4-2) from playing keepaway and fell 50-37.
Both teams got off to slow starts in the opening quarter, but it was Pryor that was able to string together scoring drives to take an early 4-0 lead. As McAlester remained scoreless, Lady Tigers sophomore Anna Raymond would make two driving layups and senior Jonah Daily, a transition layup to force a timeout.
Sophomore Rylan Lesnau finally got the Lady Buffaloes on the board at the period’s midway point with a prayer of a shot made from nearly behind the backboard and from there, momentum began to shift. Despite trailing 12-3, sophomore Kambree Zummer knocked down the game’s first triple and in the blink of an eye, McAlester was on a 9-2 scoring run of its own, bringing the game to just one possession.
However, Raymond had the immediate answer from beyond the arc in the quarter’s final seconds and Pryor held onto a 17-11 lead.
Raymond, who had seven points already in the game, opened the second period with a 5-0 scoring run herself, including a deep triple that put her in double figures. She then got her second steal of the game and turned that into a transition layup, giving her half of the Lady Tigers points, leading 24-13.
With 90 seconds left in the half, Lady Buffaloes senior Avrey Alberson broke McAlester’s long scoring drought with an and-one jumper, but Pryor freshman Naveah Chupp came right back at the buzzer to knock down a breakaway layup, giving the Lady Tigers a 32-16 lead.
The Lady Buffaloes’ scoring struggles dragged on into the second half until sophomore Taylor Williams got her first points of the game on a second-chance layup. Even with the Lady Tigers cooling off from the field, senior Peyton Marlett made sure McAlester didn’t have any chance at as she knocked down a triple to extend the lead to 20 points.
Down by 18 with just under two minutes left in the third quarter, Zummer took the game into her own hands. She picked off two Pryor passes that turned into layups and then made a triple to give the Lady Buffaloes some optimism heading into the final eight minutes of play.
Zummer continued to play with confidence and made two tough and-one buckets to bring McAlester within 10. Even though the Lady Tigers only scored six points in the second half thus far, it didn’t matter.
Foul trouble got the best of McAlester, making it hard for them to keep the Lady Tigers from simply holding onto the ball and with three out of the seven Lady Buffaloes players having four fouls, Pryor would hold on to win their second straight game, 50-37.
When McAlester returns from winter break, the team will hit the road to take on the Will Rogers Ropers (4-2) Friday Jan. 3 at 6 p.m.
