With the stretch run of the season underway, the Durant Lady Lions picked up a pair of crucial district wins last week to keep themselves in regional tournament host contention.
The Lady Lions remained alone in second place in league play with a 63-34 thumping of Tulsa Edison and 53-40 win over Tulsa Memorial to improve to 14-5 overall on the season.
Durant is slated to host Pryor on Saturday afternoon for Senior Day with a potential chance for the girls to claim a home regional slot. They’ll tangle with league leader Coweta on Tuesday.
The Lions, meanwhile, struggled offensively against two of the District 5A-4 leaders, falling to Edison (47-36) and Memorial (52-29).
Girls
In the week’s opener against Edison, the Lady Lions raced to a 17-8 advantage in the opening quarter and gradually pulled away from there.
Ella Sorrels pumped in nine of her game-high 20 points in that first stanza to spur the early DHS uprising.
Durant led it 31-18 at the half and 47-28 through three frames.
In addition to Sorrels’ total, the Lady Lions got 17 points from Iyana Wilson. Emma Green nailed three treys and scored nine, Abrianna Freeman tallied seven while Zoe Lee and Sheraya Struble added two apiece.
The Lady Lions continued the hot streak against Memorial while running their winning streak to four straight contests.
Durant built a 22-12 advantage in the first period as Green came out smoking from the perimeter by drilling three treys while Wilson tossed in six and Sorrels had five points.
They pushed the margin to 35-19 at the half and cruised through the final two stanzas.
Sorrels had another big scoring performance with 18 to lead the Lady Lion charge. Wilson checked in with 12 as Green finished with nine, Freeman and Struble both had four while Rachel Cordell and Anslee Morse tossed in three apiece.
Boys
Durant closed to within one point in the second half but could never fully recover from an early deficit in falling to Edison to begin the week’s action.
The Eagles were up 11-8 through one frame and 27-18 at halftime. Ryder Jones notched four points in the third frame to lead a balanced attack that had the margin down to 34-29 heading to the fourth but an avalanche of Edison fourth quarter treys did them in.
Jones and Carson Robinson each scored seven points as the Durant offensive leaders. Kolton Mason had six, Landon Ringels scored five, Tashaun Williams and Leon Stone both pitched in four as Callaway Nabors and Jace Baley contributed two each.
It was a tight one throughout the first half against Tulsa Memorial as the Lions battled toe-to-toe with the perennial power Chargers, down only 10-9 after one period and 19-16 at intermission.
The third quarter however was when the upset bubble burst on Durant as Memorial opened it up with a 19-3 scoring spree, including a 13-0 run, as Williams provided the only points of the frame for the Lions.
Jones paced the scoring for Durant with 11 points with Baley just missing double figures with nine. Williams finished with five while Stone and Nabors each were tabbed with two.
