Rattan Awaits Yet Again

After each and every game, Aaron West receives a printed copy of his team’s stats from the preceding 32 minutes of basketball.

He then proceeds to text a photo of those stats to interested parties, including local sports reporters.

The piece of paper from last Friday night’s game was wrinkled, crumpled, wet and a little bit torn.

For good reason…it was part of a celebration.

Okarche is headed back to the state tournament after a hardfought 66-61 victory against No. 8 Seiling in a Class A area championship game in Woodward.

The Warriors are in state for the 18th time in the program’s history and the second straight year.

“It never gets old,” said West, who played on multiple state teams for Okarche, assisted his father - the late Ray West - on one and now has been the head coach for the last two Warriors teams to reach The Big House.

“That was a really good win,” West said. “Seiling is more like a top-five team. They took some early losses because of football and a tough schedule and coaches didn’t reward them enough at the end of the season.”

Seiling’s football state championship took the Wildcats well into December.

The team took five of its six regular-season losses by Jan. 5, mostly to larger schools.

Since then, the Wildcats have won 15 of 16 and boasted a seven- game winning streak entering the game with the Warriors.

“They’ve got a lot of really good athletes and they’re winners,” said West.

The athleticism was on display for both teams as Okarche led 20-19 after a quarter and 43-36 at halftime.

Seiling was able to cut the Warriors’ lead to six points entering the fourth quarter.

It was 59-53 Okarche with under three minutes to play when Seiling began to trim the deficit even more.

The Wildcats’ Jaron Hunter hit a floater with 2:45 left to bring his team within two points.

Hunter Mueggenborg broke down the Seiling defense and fed Jett Mueggenborg for the answer just 20 seconds later.

Hunter again scored for Seiling, this time on a feed from Kaden Manuel, making it 61-59 with 1:42 to go.

Hunter Mueggenborg had the answer again on the opposite end as Okarche spread out the offense and he drove past his defender for an easy bucket with 1:32 showing on the clock.

Manuel’s two free throws with 1:05 to go made it yet again a twopoint ballgame and then Okarche turned it over against the Wildcats’ pressure.

But Jett Mueggenborg stole the ensuing inbounds pass, returning the possession to the Warriors.

They couldn’t capitalize as Hunter Mueggenborg missed two free throws with 58 seconds to play.

Seiling’s Hunter repaid the favor by also missing two straight from the charity strip with 39 seconds left.

Hunter Mueggenborg made it 64-61 with a free throw with 28.6 seconds to play and then Okarche’s own pressure forced one of Seiling’s 22 miscues.

Finally the Warriors got a bit of breathing room when Hunter Mueggenborg nailed two free throws with 15 seconds to play, putting Okarche up by five points.

It could have been a wider margin, but Jett Mueggenborg also missed two free throws in the waning seconds.

“We made JUST enough free throws, but every one of them counts and we missed too many,” West said.

Okarche was 14 of 23 for the game from the foul line.

Jett Mueggenborg scored 24 points and had eight rebounds.

Easton Roby scored 20 points and had six boards before fouling out with 1:05 to play.

Hunter Mueggenborg chipped in nine points and seven assists.

Fourth-ranked Okarche plays No. 2 Rattan at 9 p.m. Thursday in the state quarterfi nals.

Rattan beat Okarche 75-60 in last year’s quarterfi nals.

The Rams also beat Okarche 5-1 in the Class A state semifinals last fall.

“We owe them at least one,” said West. “If you can’t get fired up to play Rattan, something is wrong with you.”