Okarche squashes Stuart upset bid

The number “76” was a good one for Okarche in its Class A regional tournament.

The Lady Warriors scored that many points in back-to-back games to win the regional and advance to this week’s area championship.

Okarche blitzed No. 20 Stuart early on Monday and rode the momentum to a 76-55 victory in the regional championship at Regent Prep School in Tulsa.

That was after Saturday’s 76-27 win against Wellston in the semifinal.

“We’re hoping our size and pressure will hurt them,” coach Haley Mitchel said entering the Stuart contest.

The Lady Hornets struggled to combat both in the first half as Okarche built a 37-17 lead.

Emma Stover scored eight in the first quarter and Jalie Rother 10 in the second.

However, Stuart did manage to keep up for much of the second half.

It matched Okarche’s 20 points in the third and scored 38 overall in the second half.

“Our pressure and intensity helped a lot in the first half and we scored well pushing the ball all night,” Mitchel said.

“But we didn’t do a good job in the second half with our half-court defense. We let them get loose way too often and we didn’t do a good job of securing rebounds.”

Still, Stuart couldn’t catch up.

Stover scored 14 in the second half and finished with a game-high 22.

Rother added seven more in the fourth and scored 20. She made five 3-pointers overall.

The second-ranked Lady Warriors also got 11 points from Jadyn Rother and nine from Adyson Arms.

Okarche led Wellston 37-15 at the half then opened the second half with a 27-7 run.

Stover led the way with 23 points.

Jalie Rother and Ryen Wittrock scored 12 apiece.

Okarche (24-2) plays No. 5 Vanoss at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the area championship at Kellyville. The game was pushed back a day by the OSSAA due to potential inclement weather.

Vanoss beat Depew 53- 32 in a regional championship.

The area champ advances to state while the loser gets another crack in Monday’s consolation title game.