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By: Chris Evans
It is has been talked about this school year about the Guthrie Bluejays going up against the best of the best. Jenks, or Union would have been neat to see on the gridiron, but Friday night inside Carl Albert High School was a close second.
Class 5A's sixth ranked Guthrie Bluejays stunned Class 6A's third ranked Tulsa Union Redskins, 50-48, in the second round of the Titan Classic to move on to the championship game against, Class 6A's No. 2 ranked, Midwest City Bombers Saturday night at 8:30 p.m.
Midwest City took down cross town rival Carl Albert 53-43 Friday night and defeated Millwood 73-53 in the opening round to reach the finals. Midwest City is ranked No.2 in Class 6A with a 14-2 record.
Guthrie won the Ardmore Tournament, in late December, to go along with their wins over Ardmore and Union this weekend to move their record to 5-0 in tournament play and 11-1 overall.
The Bluejays would never trail the Union Redskins, but would see a 13 and a 12 point lead disappear with Union runs.
Buckets by Keaton Callins, Kent McDonald, and Donte' Foster gave the Jays a 6-0 lead in the first 3:00. Union responded with back-to-back buckets to move within two.
McDonald had six first quarter points, but had to go the bench with his second foul with 1:29 to play in the quarter. McDonald's teammate and sharp shooter Foster led the team with seven points in the opening frame as the Jays had a 15-10 advantage.
Both teams would slow down in the second quarter by combining for just 13 points. Guthrie would make just two field goals to go along with three free throws. Union was not much better with just three field goals.
McDonald came back in the game at 3:12 mark, but would go back to the bench with his third foul 1:06 later. However, sophomore Devon Hall filled in nicely defensively for head coach Pete Papahronis. In fact, Hall would start the third quarter and would play a key role with Union's height and size advantage.
At the half, Guthrie would lead 22-16 and Union had hard time finding the bucket especially beyond the arc.
Both teams struggled to score, again, in the third quarter by combining for 15 points. However, both teams continued to play aggressive man-to-man defense. Guthrie would put some distance between them Union, in the quarter, when Foster's old fashion three point play made it 30-20 with 1:44 remaining in the quarter.
Union and Guthrie would each connect on a free throw each to finish the quarter and the game would go to the fourth quarter with a Bluejay lead of 31-21.
The fourth quarter would start out with Guthrie in the double bonus. The Jays would connect on 10-16 fourth quarter free throws and finish 19-30 on the night.
Senior Jon Washington's bucket with 7:25 to play gave his squad a 12 point lead at 35-23. The Jays would then go up 13, with 5:29 to play, when Callins hit his only trey of the game and a McDonald free throw help push the lead to 40-27.
Union would then go on a 17-5 run in the next 4:35 to pull within one 45-44 with 56 ticks left. During the Union run, Guthrie was forced to call two timeouts.
During the final two minutes, there were several key plays, but perhaps none bigger coming from Callins and McDonald.
With the score 42-39, Callins would penetrate the right baseline and send in a running floating shot over the towering Union defenders to give the squad a 44-39 small cushion and end an 8-0 Union run.
An Union bucket moved the score to 45-44 with :56 to play. Foster, six seconds later, would nail both his free throws to make it 47-44. Union would miss a shot and Foster would see McDonald streaking down the center of the court and sent a pass to the front court where McDonald caught the ball at the three point line and went in for the two hand slam to send the Jays up 49-44.
Union would respond quickly with a bucket, six seconds later, and then fouled McDonald with 15 seconds remaining. McDonald hit one of two free throws to go up 50-46.
Union scored 10 seconds later to make it 50-48, but were out of timeouts and Guthrie did not have to inbound the basketball and watched the final seconds roll off the clock.
Foster finished with a game high 23 points while McDonald finished with 12 points. Union's 6'7" senior center Antonio Ross was the Redskins leading scorer with 22 points.
Union shot the poorly the entire night and made just one three point shot which came from Spencer Wopart, at the 1:25 mark, in the fourth quarter.
Guthrie would score 11 field goals while Union scored 19, but Guthrie would hit two more three point shots and finished the night 19 of 30 from the free throw line.
To hear Coach Papahronis, Donte' Foster, and Kent McDonald's post game interviews please visit our podcast page by Clicking Here.
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