‘The Gold Standard’

This was one for Jett Mueggenborg, but also Jarrod Mueggenborg.

It was for Easton Roby, but also Barry Schwarz.

It was for Wyatt Pinkerton, but also for Shane Coffey.

It was for Hunter Mueggenborg, but also for Tyler Karr.

It was for Caden Schieber, but also for Aaron West.

And for Ray West. And for Tom Arms. And Bob Carter.

“I said at the beginning of the year that we’ve got a great group,” Aaron West said of the Okarche Warrior basketball team.

“But nobody is going to back down and give you anything. You have to work for it, but also realize you’re playing for a bigger purpose.

“You’re playing for everyone who came before you here. Everyone who ever made any kind of sacrifi ce for this program. We represent all of that.”

••• As the final seconds ticked off the clock at State Fair Arena last Saturday night, those names and so many more rushed through Aaron West’s mind.

“But it’s also still a blur,” he said.

For good reason. West and his team had just paid tribute to those who came before them, those who filled the arena stands and so many more who were keeping track from somewhere else in the best way possible.

They won the 2024 Class A boys basketball state championship.

The Warriors capped a brilliant state tournament that night with a dominant second half to beat fifthranked and defending state champion Caddo 56-38.

In snapping a 17-game Caddo win streak, Okarche held the Bruins to seven second-half points.

The Warriors did it the way they’ve done all season: Their hard work, relentless style of play and determination wore down their opponent.

“We just go, go, go,” said sophomore Jett Mueggenborg, who was named the state tournament MVP.

Okarche did much the same all year long, pressing and pushing opponents into submission.

There were a few hiccups along the way.

The Warriors suffered their first loss to Leedey an eventual Class B state semifinal team - in the finals of the Leedey Tournament.

Then came the back-toback four-point losses to Calumet (which was undefeated until the Class B state championship team) and Hennessey (headed to the Class 2A state tournament).

“We will get it fixed,” said West after the loss to the Eagles.

They didn’t have much time, but Okarche throttled a pair of Three Rivers Conference foes to end the regular season, including a 30-point win over 2A No. 12 Fairview.

Then came the team’s playoff slate, which appeared uncharacteristically difficult on paper considering Okarche was the fourthranked team in Class A.

Up first was Ringwood in the district championship, a team on a six-game win streak and 18 total wins (it eventually was 20).

Then it was Hominy to open the regional. The Bucks owned 18 wins and an eight-game streak.

The regional championship was 11th-ranked Pond Creek-Hunter, a team with 21 wins.

Some were able to hang tough, but all eventually wilted.

The area title game saw Okarche take down No. 8 Seiling, a team that eventually knocked off No. 1 Okay and made its way into the state semifinal round.

That got Okarche into the state tournament, which isn’t uncommon.

Seventeen Warrior teams have made their way into the state tournament, including most of these same players last season.

But only one - the 1979 squad - had made its way to the mountaintop.

Some Okarche teams were perhaps good enough, but didn’t catch the right breaks. The Warriors were state runners-up in 1978, 1989, 1990, 1997 and 2010.

Others over-achieved and put themselves in position, but fell short.

And yet others didn’t quite find their way to the Big House.

West saw the faces of all those generations of players throughout Okarche’s season and playoff run.

And he knew they were ready to see their Warriors capture gold.

“You know you’re beyond blessed to have the community you do when you walk out there and there’s this huge roar,” West said. “So I made sure our guys knew we were playing for everyone. The former players. The former coaches. The managers. The fans. The community.

“We were representing them.”

But what a task it would be.

Second-ranked Rattan -the team that beat Okarche in the 2023 quarterfinals - awaited yet again in the first round.

After a sluggish start, Schieber played the game of his life to produce 14 points and 17 rebounds in a 63-54 Okarche victory.

“Caden getting all those rebounds is the reason we won that game,” said sophomore Easton Roby.

West agreed. “If he doesn’t perform like that, I don’t think we get to the next round, much less the state finals,” West said.

Schieber is West’s nephew and the grandson of the late Ray West.

He set a goal after Ray passed away in 2019 that he’d win a state championship.

“A lot of people can say that, but it’s tough to do,” West said.

Things got no easier after beating Rattan.

Okarche was in the semifinals for the 12th time in the program’s history and were set to square off against No. 3 Sentinel, a squad with a sparkling 29-1 record.

The Bulldogs were capable and ready to run with Okarche…or so they thought.

The Warriors strung together runs of 8-0, 9-0 and 6-0 and that was just in the first quarter. They built a modest 27-15 lead.

And they never stopped. Wyatt Pinkerton, who already had two first-quarter 3-pointers, opened the second quarter with two more.

Hunter Mueggenborg’s three-point play at the 4:16 mark of the second gave Okarche a 38-18 lead.

But the Warriors didn’t stop.

That was followed by Hunter Mueggenborg’s 3-pointer. Then another by Pinkerton. Then another by Roby.

By halftime, Okarche had Sentinel staring at a 50-24 deficit.

“Sentinel is a really tough team and we were pretty much able to take them out of everything they wanted to do,” West said.

“You don’t see that very often in a semifinal game.”

What Okarche did had never been seen.

The Warriors went on to win 91-39. The 52-point win is the largest margin of victory ever for a Class A or B boys basketball team at the state tournament.

“We just tried to play our game,” West said. “The guys were on a mission and the pace of play was too much for them (Sentinel).”

Proving that point were the 33 Bulldog turnovers that led to 43 Okarche points.

Pinkerton was 6 of 12 from 3-point range and scored 18 points.

“I knew when I was open that my teammates were going to get me the ball,” said the senior guard. “And every time I shot it, I felt like it was going in.”

Roby added 14 points and five rebounds.

Hunter Mueggenborg scored eight points, but, more importantly, dished out 10 assists.

“One of my goals is to get 10 assists every game,” said the junior point guard. “I try to get as many people involved as possible.”

Jett Mueggenborg poured in a game-high 28 points and Okarche was headed to “Championship Saturday” for the seventh time in the program’s history.

Awaiting the Warriors was Caddo.

Though the Bruins were “only” ranked fifth, many of their losses came early and they were the defending champions with virtually the same team returning.

That included the electric D.J. Dill, the reigning state tournament MVP.

Caddo had just dismantled Seiling in the semifinals and was playing its best basketball of the season.

And - just 1:15 into the game - the Bruins owned a four-point lead and West called a timeout.

It worked as the Warriors settled down.

Out of the timeout, Roby’s putback got Okarche on the board.

By the end of the first quarter, it was a 20-19 game with Caddo holding a slim margin.

Okarche closed the quarter with a 5-2 burst.

Three of those points were a deep 3-pointer from Hunter Mueggenborg.

Well behind the 3-point line again the second quarter, the player more wellknown for his passing skills sank yet another deep trey.

This one gave Okarche its first lead of the game at 22-20.

“I was thinking, ‘This better go in or I’m going to be in trouble,’” said Hunter. “But I knew we needed to keep scoring.”

And so Hunter Mueggenborg added yet another 3-pointer late in the quarter to give the Warriors a 32-31 halftime lead. By the break, he’d scored 11 points and he ended the game with 13.

“Hunter kept us in that game in the first half,” said Jett Mueggenborg, who himself had scored nine.

West was happy with the pace.

“I said before the game that if it was 40-40 at halftime, I’m fine with that,” West said. “Because I knew we would be able to keep it up.”

••• Okarche practices aren’t fun.

They’re fast-paced and intense.

And when they’re over, it’s time to run.

“Everyday,” said Schieber.

It’s also not easy.

“A lot of kids on teams before have quit because of it,” said Pinkerton.

But there’s a method to West’s madness.

“Our guys are in shape,” he said. “They’ve bought into being in shape, being coached, being pushed and knowing that we love them, but we have to make them better players.”

So they run. And they run some more.

And when the ball is tipped, Okarche runs. And runs some more.

“I feel our style wears people down,” West said. “All of our guys are well-conditioned and I feel in a three-day tournament, other teams wear down and we get stronger.”

Added Pinkerton of the running: “It’s a tough deal, but toughness wins games.”

••• On top of planning to continue pushing the pace in the second half, West and assistant coaches Brandon Treece and Hunter Frisby - both Okarche alumni - made an adjustment on defense.

Dill had a modest six points at halftime, but also had six rebounds and three assists.

The Warriors were going to make it tougher on him the rest of the night.

They threw a box-and-1, T-and-1 and triangle-and-2 defenses at the Bruins in the second half.

No matter the scheme, Pinkerton - all 5-foot 9 of him - was going to be guarding the 6-foot-2 Dill.

“People might think that’s crazy, but he’s our toughest guy,” West said. “And Wyatt just said, ‘Coach, I’ve got you.’” And he also had Dill locked up.

He finished the game with six points, six rebounds and three assists - the same stats he had at halftime. In fact, Dill didn’t score in the final three quarters of the game.

Pinkerton knew that with the way the Bruins were defending, his opportunities to score were going to be limited.

Therefore, he knew the way to the gold ball was for him to contribute defensively.

“When we play a defense like that, I know I’m going to be on their best player,” Pinkerton said. “Mentally, I know I have to be tougher than the guy in front of me. I don’t want to get beat by anyone.”

Okarche started the second half with a 7-0 run to build an eight-point lead.

One of those buckets came from senior Braxton Smith, who spelled Schieber throughout the tournament.

His putback on offense came after he blocked a shot on the defensive end.

He ended the night with seven points and nine rebounds in just under 20 minutes.

“I felt like I had been waiting on that moment and I was able to make it happen,” he said of his performance.

The Bruins got a bucket from Braden Tyson with 3:35 left in the third quarter to cut their deficit to four points.

But Roby and Jett Mueggenborg closed the third with six combined free throws, giving Okarche a 44-35 advantage.

It was essentially game over.

“We felt that we had enough good guards that they weren’t going to be able to get the basketball from us,” West said. “So we spread them out and made some key plays in the fourth.”

Both Mueggenborgs scored baskets in the fourth - nearly three minutes apart. But Caddo was able to do little to combat it on the offensive end.

Okarche made 7 of 8 free throws in the final three minutes to lock up the gold ball.

Caddo shot 50 percent (14 of 28) in the first half. The Bruins were just 2 of 17 (11.8 percent) in the second half. That included going 0 of 12 from 3-point range.

“Everyone was helping and hedging on defense and made them miss some tough, deep shots,” West said. “Then we were getting big rebounds.”

Smith’s performance on the boards was only outshined by Roby.

He concluded his night with 13 points and 13 rebounds. Nine of those boards came in the second half.

“I realized at halftime that they were getting some offensive rebounds,” said Roby of the Bruins. “I knew Jett was handling the scoring, so I needed to get some boards and make things happen that way.”

Jett did handle the scoring.

He poured in 20 points and averaged 22 for the tournament.

His long-range shot wasn’t working - he was 0 for 4 from 3-point range - so Mueggenborg went to work with his mid-range scoring, which has been by design.

“That’s been a big focus this past year,” he said. “My dad and I talked about that needing to be a bigger part of my game, so I worked on it.”

Mueggenborg didn’t seem impressed with his own MVP performance.

“This is a team deal. This wasn’t me,” he said. “We needed everyone.”

He then echoed his coach’s comments on how everyone in the Okarche rotation stepped up during the three-day run to the title:

• Jett’s consistent scoring

• Schieber’s monster rebounding and scoring against Rattan;

• Pinkerton’s lights-out shooting vs. Sentinel and lock-down defense against Caddo;

• Hunter’s 10 assists in the semifinals and deep 3-pointers against Caddo;

• Smith’s massive minutes off the bench in the championship game;

• Roby’s ability to score, rebound or defend at will in all three games.

“Everyone did something at least one night where, if they didn’t, we probably don’t win,” West said. “They were determined and disciplined. They played the game the right way and did not care about individual achievements.

“But, still, it’s so tough to win it all. You have to be good. You have to make your breaks and you have to catch some breaks.”

And as good as Okarche has been in its storied program, only one other team had been able to accomplish what the 2024 version did.

And that’s what West wanted this team to focus on.

“I told them everyone has a reason and a ‘why’ and I wanted them to find what motivated them,” West said. “This group got that. Everybody wanted it for some reason or for someone.

“They played for each other and they played for Okarche.”

Jett Mueggenborg’s dad, Jarrod, was an Okarche All-State player in 2000.

He didn’t win the title. Nor did Shane Coffey or Chris Schroder or West or Roman Owen or Karr or Drew Krittenbrink or Chris Avila, all players whose images sit in Okarche’s trophy case as All-State selections.

“All the teams that came through Okarche, we did it for them,” Jett said.

Roby agreed. “A lot of those people who didn’t make it showed up and supported us,” he said. “They came to talk with us after and even during the season. It’s tradition and it really is special. There were so many people we played for.”

Among the people who addressed the team was Arms, the former Warrior coach who preceded Ray West.

A longtime friend of Ray West, Arms made his way to the bench Saturday night as the game was winding down. He gave Aaron a massive hug and then highfi ved all the players.

Arms talked with the Warriors before they took on Rattan. He set the stage.

“He said there’s only one standard, the gold standard,” Hunter Mueggenborg said. “He said if you really want to be remembered, you can’t go there and get close.

“Now we’ll really be remembered.”