Guthrie participating in the Ardmore Festival

This week is the 50th Annual McGuinness Classic and again has a solid field this season with a mixture Class 6A, 5A, and 4A schools. Thanks to the Oklahoman's Robert Przyblo for his updates on Thursday and Friday and for the following article by Chuck Chaney on the final day of the Classic.

Day Three

Guthrie 46, Norman North 43

Guthrie has played the entire 50th annual McGuinness Classic without the services of junior Kentrell Brothers, losing a tough one to McGuiness 51-65, Thursday, and then beating Northwest Classen 63-56 on Friday.

Guthrie came into Saturday's game with a chance to redeem their tournament with a win over Norman North. Norman North came into the game ranked #7 in Class 6A and carried a 9-1 record into the game. From the start it seemed that Guthrie was here to play.

Coach Paparhonis said, "We know we're a young team, and we keep getting better each game."

Starting out the game, B.J. McDonald stole a pass, went down and missed the lay up. However, sophomore Codee Gross game in and tipped it in, giving Guthrie the early 2-0 lead.

Guthrie kept the defensive intensity fired up for the entire first quarter, pushing the lead up to 16-8 and forcing Norman North to call their first time out at 1:30 left in the first quarter. Patrick Schaefer for the Timberwolves came back however, scoring out of the time out, making it 16-10. That's how the first quarter came to a close.

For final game stats click here.

To start the second quarter, the Blue Jays countered a Gary King three pointer by going on an 8-0 run through the second quarter. They had their biggest lead of the game at 24-13 with 6:11 remaining in the half. King and Scheafer helped lead the Timberwolves's come back though, making a big 8-0 run to end the half, 24-21 Blue Jays were leading.

McDonald had eight points and seven rebounds in the first half to lead the Blue Jays. Senior's Chauncey Dumas had five and Devon Hall had seven for Guthrie. Caleb Murrillo also chipped in four points.

Norman North was lead by Scheafer who had nine points at the break, King had five. T-Wolves had three other scorers with just two points.

The second half Guthrie came out tough again, pushing the lead to 32-24 after a couple of McDonald down low baskets. After a Norman North time out, Scheafer did it again, scoring his first basket of the second half followed by another King three point bomb. All of a sudden Guthrie's lead was down to 32-29.

Guthrie would get it back up to a five point game, 40-35, after Dumas hit a running shot from the baseline with 1:07 to go in the third quarter and remained the score at quarter's end.

Matt Southland, 6'8" senior from Norman North, would finally get into the scoring category as the Blue Jays tried to rest some starters. He would go 3-4 from the field in the fourth quarter helping Norman North push back into a tie with Guthrie at 43 with 2:20 remaining in the ball game. However, Hall hit a baseline jumper with 1:54 to go, allowing Guthrie to take a 45-43 lead.

Guthrie, trying to run down the final seconds of the game, turned the ball over with 28.4 seconds left, giving Norman North life. Stellar defense by the Blue Jays did not allow the T-Wolves to get anything down low and forced them to try a three point shot with 11.2 seconds left, which clanked off the rim by King, Chauncey Dumas rebounded the ball and was fouled with 8.7 seconds left.

Dumas hit the front end of the one and one situation. Missing the second one off the front of the rim. Pushing the ball up court, Gross was called for the foul with 3.7 seconds left giving Norman North one last breath. However, that was ended as Schaefer missed a three off the side of the rim from the right corner at the buzzer. Guthrie survived 46-43.

The #9 ranked Guthrie Blue Jays were stellar defensively forcing 15 turnovers and holding Norman North to just 38% shooting. McDonald had 12 points and 10 rebounds for Guthrie, Gross followed with 11 points. Hall was instrumental in the second half, with nine points.

"We are missing one of our starters," Papahronis spoke on missing a couple of key players, "but we stepped up and got a big win over a top 5 or 10 Class 6A team."

McDonald was named to the All-Tournament team, helping his Blue Jays to a 5th place finish in the Classic after winning last year's tournament.

McDonald on the victory, "It was a good team win, Norman North is one of the top teams in Class 6A, Coach P. knew how to coach us to this victory, we're pretty happy right now."

Guthrie returns home Tuesday, January 12th, for a battle against Class 5A's #8 ranked El Reno Indians. The game will be on 105.1.

Day Two

Guthrie 63, Northwest Classen 56

Sophomore Codee Gross and junior Caleb Murillo both had big games as the Jays picked up their first win in the McGuinness Classic over the 10th ranked Knights.

Murillo led all scorers with 15 points while Gross had 14 points. The BlueJay big men B.J. McDonald and Devon Hall added down low by combining for 17 points. Senior Chaunsey Dumas added in 13.

McDonald has averaged 11 points in the two games of the Classic.

Guthrie trailed at half but never felt the ‘Jays weren’t in control. A strong start to the half, and Guthrie never trailed in the second half.

Day One

Guthrie 51, McGuinness 65

The McGuinness Fightin' Irish opened up the game with the Jays in the second quarter by outscoring them 17-7 and Guthrie could never bounce back.

The Irish played without Matt Christiansen with a bummed shoulder while the Jays where without three year junior starter Kentrell Brothers, who is in San Antonio for the U.S. Army football combine.

Senior forward B.J. McDonald filled the void by throwing in 13 points as nine different Jays scored.

The Irish duo of Jameel Whitney and Joe Edmonds combined for 42 points.

The Irish 65 points scored is the most on a Guthrie team since the 2007-2008 season. El Reno scored 72 points in a 73-72 lost to the Jays, in Guthrie, on 02/05/2008.

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