Sports Roundup: Lady Sandites Still Undefeated, Wrestling Falls to Bixby

Hailey Jackson scored 31 points for the Sandites against Broken Arrow.

This story was originally written by Scott Emigh for the Sand Springs Leader.

The last time the Sand Springs girls basketball team won ten straight games to start the season, it went on to win conference, regional, and area championships.

Whether this year’s eighth-ranked Lady Sandites reach similar heights remains to be seen, but they are still undefeated after meetings with No. 10 Broken Arrow and Bartlesville this week.

The Sandites picked up a 66-46 win over the Tigers (6-4, 2-2) Tuesday night at the Ed Dubie Field House before traveling to Bartlesville for a 55-37 win against the Bruins (3-7, 0-4) to improve to 5-0 in Frontier Valley Conference action.

Junior star Hailey Jackson went off for 31 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 steals against the Tigers, while Journey Armstead contributed 15 points. Layne Kirkendoll added 8 points and 9 rebounds. 

“(Jackson)’s just coming along and playing hard,” said head coach Josh Berry. “I’ve always said she had the potential to be that good.”

The Sandites led by as much as 28 points early in the fourth quarter before sending in the backups. 

Friday’s game started a little slower, but the Bruins never led after the first quarter and the Sandites ran away with a 22-4 third quarter to put the game safely out of reach. 

“Every game for us in this conference, you’ve got to prepare for it,” said Berry. “If you’re not ready to play, you can get beat. Especially the way we play. We’re a defensively oriented team, so if we don’t come ready to play every night, we can get beat by anybody.”

Armstead scored 23 points with 7 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 assists. Jackson scored 8 points with 10 rebounds and Kirkendoll added 6 points with 11 rebounds. 

The Sandites will host Muskogee (1-6, 0-3) Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. before competing at the Jenks/Union tournament Thursday through Saturday. They will play Jenks (2-5) on Thursday before taking on either Trinity Christian or No. 1 Edmond North (10-0) on Friday.

Boys Basketball

The Sandite boys team (3-7, 0-5) is still looking for its first conference win of the season after falling 70-47 to Broken Arrow and 82-54 to Bartlesville this week.

On Tuesday the Sandites were led by Jason Clark with 10 points and Cale Askew with 9 in the home loss to No. 6 Broken Arrow (8-2, 4-1). Clark and Alijah Roper scored 12 apiece against No. 14 Bartlesville (6-4, 3-2).

Sand Springs will get its first unranked opponent in over a month when they play Muskogee (2-6, 0-3) on Tuesday. They will then travel to Catoosa for the Port City Classic with a Thursday matchup against the home team (9-4) at 8:30 p.m.

Wrestling

On Thursday the Sandites (3-1) suffered their first loss of the season, falling 47-24 to No. 5 Bixby (5-1). 

David Ritchey and Colt Hood pinned their foes to start the dual, then Zander Grigsby and Jayden Pait won decisions for an 18-0 lead against last year’s Dual State Runners Up.

The Spartans won the next eight matches, however, before Mason Harris collected a fall at heavyweight to end the night. 

Sand Springs will return to action Tuesday at Union with a district triple-header against No. 10 Ponca City (1-2), No. 15 Union (1-4), and Edmond Deer Creek (0-3). The Sandites won five district titles in a row from 2016 to 2020 before coming up short last season.

The Sandite junior high team placed second at the Perry tournament over the weekend with three finalists.

Kase Skaggs, Kaden Pope, and Ryley Kester all placed second and Dawson Briscoe, Jaxon Grigsby, and Jaxon “Scout” Trotter placed third.