Not a bad way to head into the final tournament week before playoffs.

With matching 20-point wins, the MacArthur basketball team completed three-games against Class 5A opponents; teams that they needed to beat to improve their chances of hosting a regional..

The Mac girls got the action going with a 50-23 win over Duncan to go into this week's break with a lot of positivity. Now they have the rest of the week off after already completing their three tournaments.

The Mac boys ended the doubleheader with Duncan with defensive intensity that led to a 70-51 win as they head to Altus on Thursday for the Shortgrass Invitational.

Boys
Early on the game looked like a normal Mac-Duncan affair. Fast paced, scoring on both ends of the floor and an intensity that comes from a good rivalry.

At the end of the first, the game was close, 19-17, with the Highlanders owning the small lead.

That's when Mac ratcheted up the defense and forced Duncan mistakes. What came out of that was a 19-4 second quarter in favor of Mac and a lead the Highlanders would not relinquish.

Duncan actually got the second quarter going with a bucket to tie the game at 19, but buckets from Barry Williams, Roemello Burton and Bryce Beckett quickly shifted the momentum and forced a Demons' timeout with 4:43 left.

That timeout could not stop the momentum, however, and the Highlanders closed out the quarter from there on a 10-0 run.

"We seem to keep having one great quarter," Mac head coach Kevin Harrington said. "Against Ardmore it was the third, and against Duncan it was that second quarter, where the defensive intensity and shots are falling at the same time. We know we can't play like that for four quarters but we can at least keep the defensive intensity up."

That defensive intensity came from a scrambling man-to-man defense that led to 19 Duncan turnovers.

Read the Full Story...