Beau Simmons

DURANT - The Durant basketball squads closed out the regular season with another split Tuesday night. The Lady Lions (10-12) fell 44-33 to the Lady Buffaloes of McAlester. The Lions (13-9) topped the Buffs 66-61.

Durant moves on to postseason play beginning with the girls Thursday. The Lady Lions will play Skiatook at 6:30 p.m. at Tulsa East Central. The Lions will play at 6:30 p.m. Friday against Nathan Hale at Tulsa Bishop Kelley.

Girls

For the second night in a row, the Lady Lions made a startling comeback in the second half, only to come up short. After trailing 22-13 in the first half, Durant outscored McAlester 13-4 in the third quarter.

The Lady Lions tied the game twice in the fourth quarter but never gained the lead. Alysse Morgan dished to Lauren Hughes with 5:40 left in the contest to make it 30-all. McAlester answered with an 8-0 run and never looked back.

From early in the second quarter, neither team was making much progress shooting. The only scores came from free throws from the 2:01 mark in the second quarter to the 5:30 mark in the third.

Felicia Renegar broke the Lady Lions' drought with a 3-pointer in the third quarter, to add to the run.

Renegar led Durant with seven points, and Hughes ended up with six. Regan Browne, Amanda Switzer, and Courtney Conditt each had four points.

Cristen Williamson contributed with three, while Morgan and Katy O'Steen each had two points Kaci Robinson rounded out the scoring with a foul shot.

Boys

In every quarter, Durant's Bo White finished up the scoring for Durant. Each time he made it special. White pulled up for a jumper to give Durant a 14-8 lead in the first. He hit a fade-away with one second left in the second, and he iced the game with a couple of free throws in the fourth. The one that brought down the house was his buzzer-beating 3-pointer from just past half-court to end the third period.

White scored a career-high 22 points and made six of six free throws in the last 30 seconds of the fourth quarter.

Durant also got a strong performance from the guys in the paint.

Michael Krumel scored 20 points with nine rebounds, and three blocked shots. Justin Stephens added 14 points. Both Krumel and Stephens both got into foul trouble early, but made good use of the time they spent on the floor.

McAlester's Mathews provided the Buffs with their own highlight reel. Having scored just 10 points in his first meeting against Durant, the quick guard was nearly unstoppable while driving the lane for a game-high 24 points.

The Lions led by as much as 22-8 after Will Robinson capped a 10-0 run with a put-back in the second quarter. McAlester managed to climb within four points, before White's fade-away to end the half.

McAlester stayed close in the third, and managed to tie the game twice before five unanswered by Krumel and Jake Boyd. White ended the third quarter with three 3-pointers, and gave Durant a 47-49 lead.

Durant led 60-48 with 1:10 left in the contest. McAlester answered by scoring seven points within the next 50 seconds, before White started hitting the foul shots.

Boyd ended up with five on the night, and Robinson contributed with three points. Blake Allen rounded out the scoring with two points in the fourth quarter.

The Lions also had to make due without Jameson Joines, whose presence has been missed the last two games with a foot injury.