North Girls upset Lady Wolves

The Edmond North Lady Huskies upset the Santa Fe Lady Wolves, 52-48, in the Edmond Open Tournament late last year. Santa Fe then escaped a narrow victory at North, 54-52, on Jan. 26. In the third matchup of the season Friday night No. 4 Santa Fe hosted No. 12 Edmond North with the Lady Wolves getting the last laugh in a 63-57 victory over North to claim the tiebreaker for the 2017-2018 season. North’s Kamri Heath led all scorers with 19, while teammate Raychael Harjo contributed 16 points. Ravon Nero led Santa Fe scorers with 18. Heath got the ball rolling for the Lady Huskies with a jumper through traffic. On the following possession, Heath stole a Santa Fe pass and finished on the other end with a left-handed layup. Later in the quarter, she finished again with her left hand near the basket to keep the early momentum for the Lady Huskies. Santa Fe persisted, however, as Jasmine Taplin dished the ball to Keira Neal across the lane on a two-on-one fast-break for 2 points. The first quarter ended with Amaia Maxwell finding Raychael Harjo in the short corner for a jumper. After one, North led 16-8. Santa Fe’s Ravon Nero tried to get things started with an and-one early in the second quarter. Her 7 points and 100 percent free throw shooting in the quarter served as an anchor for the Lady Wolves staying in the game. An aggressive defensive scheme helped the Lady Wolves to wear down the thriving North offense, as Santa Fe entered a full-court press for most of the second quarter. North held a 30-23 lead going into the half. “We just had to calm down and stop trying to rush it. You win games by possessions. We just had to slow down and play the game instead of playing their game,” said Santa Fe guard Makayla Foy. The Lady Wolves did exactly that in the third quarter. The Lady Wolves stayed in a full-court press, and North found more trouble getting the ball across half-court each trip down. Offensively, the Wolves went off in the third quarter as well. Foy hit a three-pointer to start things off for Santa Fe. With 58 seconds left in the third quarter, Neal threw a pass to Taplin who finished at the rim for the 2-pointer to bring the Lady Wolves back within 10. Foy hit a pair of free throws seconds later to cut North’s lead to 6. Kryslyn Jones assisted Kaylee Nero for another score under the goal to cut the North lead to 4. Following a North score, Ravon Nero drew a shooting foul in the process of shooting a 3-pointer. She hit all three free throws. A pair of free throws from Neal brought the third quarter score to 48-47, North. Jones hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 50 early in the fourth quarter. With just more than 7 minutes left in the game, Makayla Foy hit a 3-pointer from four feet behind the arc to give Santa Fe its first lead of the game, 53-52. From this point until midway through the quarter, both teams traded shots. Harjo tied the game up at 56 with 4 minutes remaining. Heath added a free throw to give North the 57-56 lead a minute later. Nero tied the game back up at 57 with a free throw of her own. With under two and a half minutes remaining Foy hit a pair of free throws to regain the lead and for the final lead change of the evening. Foy finished with 7 points in the fourth quarter to propel the Lady Wolves’ comeback. The Lady Wolves burned the first half of the final minute of the game playing keep-away on North’s end of the floor. Nero was finally fouled and hit both free throws to end her 90-percent shooting night from the free throw line.

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Edmond North High School Athletics

NORTH GIRLS UPSET LADY WOLVES

BRYCE MCKINNIS

Edmond Sun | 2/11/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Edmond North Athletics