City teams hit road for games against quality opponents

There is nothing glamorous about a three-hour bus ride, but if that's what it takes to fill a basketball schedule these days then that's what the Lawton teams are going to have to do to get recognition.

Tonight all three city schools will load up and make bus trips  MacArthur will take the "short" drive to Midwest City to battle Carl Albert High School, Eisenhower will drive all the way to Enid and Lawton High makes the drive to Stillwater. All three varsity doubleheaders begin at 6:30 p.m.

For Ike and LHS the weekend involves an overnight stay and then the two schools will swap opponents for Saturday doubleheaders with LHS moving to Enid and Ike heading to Stillwater.

The good news for Mac fans is that they will drive home and then host Tulsa Hale at 6 p.m. Saturday in another varsity doubleheader.

This is all about improving your rankings against good competition; the only way teams can forge a good enough record to impress the OSSAA and earn a host site for a regional tournament.

The most intriguing games may be at Carl Albert because the CA girls are ranked No. 3 in Class 5A and Mac is ranked No. 15. The boys' game may have even more on the line since the Titans are No. 1 and the Highlanders No. 9 and those Top-10 matchups always draw a great deal of interest from other 5A coaches eager to see how the teams stack up early in the season.

For Mac girls coach Danny Garza, he is counting on the maturity of his club to help put a tough tournament title-game loss behind and be ready for back-to-back challenges this weekend.

"Carl Albert is really a nice club; I've watched film for four hours and they have some talent," Garza said. "Their best player is a 5-9 girl who committed to OU (Gioya Carter) and the thing about her is she can not only go inside and post up but she can also handle the ball well and shoot from the outside. So, we can't just pack it in on her; we have to chase her.

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