Dover tops Garber to capture 100th edition of Skeltur
KARLEE HARVISTON’S 32 points catapulted her Dover team to the 100th annual Skeltur Conference Tournament championship last weekend. [Photo by Chris Simon/www.simon- sports-photos.smugmug.com]
Saturday offered a first for this year’s Dover Lady Longhorns basketball team.
It trailed at halftime. More importantly, though, the Lady Longhorns didn’t trail at the end of the game.
A big third-quarter run pushed Dover to a lead it wouldn’t lose as it downed Class A No. 11 Garber 4741 in the historic 100th annual Skeltur Conference Tournament championship game at the Stride Bank Center in Enid.
The win ended an eightgame Garber win streak and - more impressively - the Lady Wolverines’ seven- year run as conference tournament champions.
Dover beat Garber 5428 in their regular-season matchup last month.
Karlee Harviston did her best to make sure the teams were on a similar path as she nailed three 3-pointers and got Dover out to a 13-9 lead.
It grew to 15-9 in the second quarter, but Dover got saddled with foul trouble to Katelyn Harviston and Garber also went on a 10-0 run.
The Lady Wolverines led by four just before half when Madison Goodwin was able to score for Dover just before the end of the quarter to end the run.
The third quarter was almost all Dover.
Karlee Harviston and Rylee Buck combined for 15 points as Dover went on a 17-6 run.
“We tried to get the girls moving more on offense without the ball and found open spots,” coach Matt Peck said of his 19-0 team that has been ranked No. 1 in Class B all season.
“Karlee and Rylee were also more aggressive on the offensive end.”
The made buckets allowed Dover to force the pace of the game, as did the Lady Longhorns’ man-toman defense.
“Our man created turnovers and easy buckets in transition,” Peck said.
Dover forced 19 Garber turnovers in the game.
The Lady Wolverines tried to close the gap in the fourth quarter, but Karlee Harviston refused to let it happen.
The senior scored 12 points in the fourth, including making 6 of 7 free throws down the stretch.
For the game, she had 32 points, which included five 3-pointers.
Buck finished with eight. It was Dover’s first Skeltur Tournament championship since 2005, which was its seventh straight at the time.
Dover opted out of the tournament after that season and didn’t return for several years.
It was the program’s 15th Skeltur title overall.
Dover beat Pond Creek-Hunter 55-31 in Friday’s semifinal.
The Lady Longhorns used a 21-7 run in the second quarter to break away.
Six different Dover players scored in that quarter and four reached double digits in the game.
Karlee Harviston led all scorers with 14.
Ashley Gamez and Katelyn Harviston had 13 apiece while Buck chipped in 11.
Longhorns 4th at Skeltur
Scoring woes hit the Dover Longhorns, especially in their final two games of the Skeltur Conference Tournament.
Dover settled for fourth place after Saturday’s 32-28 loss to Covington-Douglas in the third-place game at Stride Bank Center.
That came after a 5228 defeat to Class A No. 4 Drummond in Friday’s semifinals.
On Saturday, the Longhorns went without a field goal in the final quarter and was outscored 9-2 in the frame.
The Wildcats had just one field goal themselves, but went 7 of 10 from the free throw line as well.
The Longhorns also struggled to score in the second quarter, managing just two points in falling behind 11-10.
Business picked up in the third.
Casen Buck and Nathan Cohee each hit a 3-pointer and Lucas Conrady scored 10 points as Dover staked a 26-23 lead.
However, the fourth saw Dover’s only points come from two Conrady field goals.
The junior led the team with 15 points.
Cohee finished with seven and Buck five.
Dover was 11-8 after the loss.