Oklahoma high school boys basketball notebook: Midwest City putting things together; Carl Albert, Pocola come off rousing tournament titles

News and notes from around Oklahoma high school boys basketball

By Buck Ringgold

A popular phrase utilized by Midwest City coach Corky McMullen is "Fail Forward."

"That's one of the things we say a lot," McMullen said. "We lost a lot of close games early in the season, and what we mean by 'Fail Forward' is you fail but you move forward, and you learn from your failures and you get better, and we certainly have done that."

The Bombers, after a 3-5 start, have now won eight of their past nine games, with the only loss in that span coming to Del City, the current No. 1 team in the SBLive Oklahoma overall rankings.

Last weekend, Midwest City (11-6) won the Bruce Gray Invitational at Edmond Deer Creek, beating Deer Creek by one in the semifinals, 42-41; then edging Edmond Memorial for the title, 38-36. The Bombers then rallied from an early deficit to win at Putnam City West on Tuesday, 55-48.

"One thing we don't do is we don't scimp on film," McMullen said. "We watch a lot of film, and just try to learn from the things we do well and the things we've done poorly, and we've really learned how to win the close games where early on, we were making some simple mistakes that we felt like we can clean up.

"Our guys have really started believing in that process of watching that film and not making the same mistakes."

Helping carry the Bombers are Jacobi Sebock and Keivon Hudson.

Sebock hit a go-ahead 3 with 3.7 seconds left in the Bombers' Bruce Gray Invitational title game win, and sealed it with a block as time expired. He had 14 points and was named the tournament MVP.

Hudson hit three 3-pointers in the second quarter in Tuesday's game, helping Midwest City pull within two at the half before the Bombers locked in defensively in the second half to grab the win. He was the team's top scorer with 17 points.

"Jacobi's been great; offensively, he has led us in scoring but he does a lot of little things, defensively and rebounding-wise, that controls a lot of things," McMullen said. "Keivon's been really good; he's one of those guard-forward kind of guys that does a little bit of everything, especially defensively, he's kind of been our defensive stopper.

McMullen added the team is getting good contributions from senior Artez Young.

"The guy no one really talks about is Artez Young, who's a senior and has really controlled tempo for us," McMullen said. "We like to call him our sheep dog; he keeps us where we need to be when we need to be there and he knows why we need to be there. He's really grown into that role."

McMullen added the Bombers have a slew of role players, which he can play up to nine who understand their roles.

"The biggest thing with this group of guys is they are very connected, very cohesive, they really have believed in each other," he said.

Midwest City returns home Friday to take on Enid and is at home again Tuesday to face Putnam City North.

Midwest City Carl Albert

Across town, the defending Class 5A state champions are also hitting its stride.

The Titans have won four straight following Saturday's dramatic 41-38 win against Norman in their own Titan Classic.

"When you always go into a tournament, you hope to win two and you hope you have a shot at winning it," Carl Albert coach Jay Price said. "Fortunately for us, we played pretty well against McAlester and had a really good game against a pretty solid Destiny Christian team.

"Then that put us in a position to play Norman, and Norman has just got better and better as the year's gone on, and they're a pretty tough matchup. ... They put it on us in the first half; they had us down 13 and we looked like we were in a lot of trouble."

But the Titans came out in the second half and used their defense to get back into it, creating turnovers which led to easy baskets.

Then, with the score tied and time running out, Carl Albert sophomore Ryan Reynolds launched a 3-point basket for the game-winning points. That was the Titans' first lead since going up early, 1-0.

"We're a really young team, and just to see them grow and learn from some experiences that we've had in some games that we've won and some games that we've lost," Price said. "But one thing I've really loved is they are competitors; they want to try to figure out a way to win."

The Titans' top scorer is junior guard Jordan England, who saw lots of action a season ago but was not considered a primary go-to option because of the senior-laden group that was on the roster.

Price has also liked the defensive effort from players like junior Tashawn James and senior Damorrion Brown. Sophomore Quincy Hopkins has also emerged as a scoring option, and was named the MVP of the Titan Classic.

"We're starting to blend some things together, some of the young players are coming around and those are some of the guys that are particularly kind of standing out right now," Price said.

"I'm hoping through the experience that we've gained with some of these young players, by the time we get to the playoffs, we will have gotten enough to know what it takes to win those kind of games. We've played some tough, athletic teams, which I'm hoping will be enough experience for us to be able to carry some of that into the playoffs and be able to play consistently night after night to give us a chance."

Carl Albert played at home Thursday night against Tulsa Central. The Titans will travel to Piedmont on Friday and return home Tuesday to face Noble.

Pocola

In his second season as the team's coach, Derek Barlow has helped the Indians continue a remarkable ascent.

Before Barlow took over, Pocola won a total of nine games in four seasons. Last season, the Indians improved to 13-10.

Pocola has more than exceeded that win total this season. The Indians stand at 15-1 following Tuesday's 60-49 win at Heavener. That came on the heels of winning last weekend's LeFlore County Tournament with a 53-39 win against Spiro, the Indians' first county title since 1999.

"We were very happy with the way our players worked and played this summer, and we knew that we had a chance to be a competitive team," Barlow said. "I am proud of the way the boys have battled and how they continue to work at getting better.

"It meant a great deal to these boys to go win the Leflore County Tournament for the first time since 1999. These kids weren't even born then, and they feel like that championship highlights the turnaround in our basketball program."

Perhaps no player symbolizes the Indians' rise than senior Eli Garrett. As a sophomore, he was part of a Pocola team that won just two games and finished last in the county tournament.

But after extensive time in the weight room, Garrett gained over 25 pounds since the start of the school year. He has posted solid numbers this season and was named the MVP of the LeFlore County Tournament.

"To see his hard work pay off and to see a kid like him go from the bottom to the top is the very reason that you become a coach," Barlow said. "He exemplifies how far this program has come."

In the LCT title game, the Indians were led with17 points from sophomore Garrett Scott. It was already a big night for his family, as his older sister, senior Mika Scott, helped give Pocola the LCT title in the girls division.

With Pocola winning both the boys and girls county titles, it was the first time since 1991 the school achieved that feat.

The Indians will travel to Talihina, site of last weekend's LCT title game, on Friday and return home Tuesday to face Stigler.

"We are happy with what we have done, but we are far from satisfied," Barlow said. "We fully realize that we have a tremendous task ahead of us in regard to the playoffs and we are working hard every day to put ourselves in position to do our best in the playoffs."