THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Bixby High School Athletics

BIXBY — An official’s whistle late in Friday’s boys’ basketball battle reverberated like a crashing gong of doom in the hearts of Bartlesville High School faithful. The Bruins were on the comeback trail. Yes, they were. They had trailed Bixby by nine points at the start of the fourth period, 44-35, but had drawn ever closer during the next seven minutes. With 1:13 left, the Bixby Spartans led by four points, 58-54, but the Bruins had the ball. Two free throws by Bruin leading scorer Jaylin Oliver — his 36th and 37th points of the game — cut Bixby’s lead to two points, 58-56, with 56 seconds left. After Bixby failed to answer, Bartlesville got the ball back with a chance to tie or go ahead. But, with 14 seconds left — 13.7 to be exact — an official rang up Oliver for his fifth foul. On the play — which took place just above the three-point line — Oliver ducked his shoulder and made contact with the encroaching defender. Many Bruin fans felt a non-call would have been in order, and weren’t shy in expressing their view. But, to no avail. Oliver — Bartlesville’s hottest shooter — left the court and Bixby got the ball back. The Bruins fouled a Bixby player, with seven seconds left. He kept the door open by missing one of his two free throws, which set the lead at three points, 59-56. On their final inbounds play, Bartlesville burned some precious time in the backcourt and had to hurry a three-point shot, which was off the mark. Bixby (7-10) won, 59-56. The loss prevented Bartlesville’s bid for back-to-back wins in the Frontier Valley Conference. Oliver simply shredded the Spartan defense from everywhere in the halfcourt. He snapped the nets with eight three-pointers, scored two-pointers on a jumper and a fast break, and buried 9-of-10 free throws. Bixby focused much of its defensive attention on Bartlesville’s other potent scorer, Tayo Dina, trying to deny him driving lanes to the bucket. Dina — who sat most the first half with foul trouble — finished with five points. Andrew Gronigan added eight points, including two of Bartlesville’s 12 treys. Tre Waggnor scored 25 to lead Bixby. The start could hardly have been more discouraging for Bartlesville. Bixby bolted to a 10-0 lead in the opening six minutes and the Bruins never completely recovered. Oliver scored the Bruins’ lone two points — on free throws — in the opening period. The Bruins endured approximately eight-and-a-minutes prior to their first bucket — a three-point swisher by Oliver, off an inside-out feed from Holden Bryant. After Bixby missed on the other end, the Bruins came down and Oliver buried another downtown special, which cut Bixby’s lead to four points, 12-8. But, a pattern then emerged — the Bruins kept clawing and battling and scoring, but never caught the resourceful Spartans. One example of this happened when Jake Bilger canned a three-pointer for Bartlesville to cut the margin to three, 17-14 — and Bixby’s Waggnor responded on the other end with a trey. Bixby built an eight-point lead by halftime, 26-18. The third period followed the same script, with Bixby leading between nine-to-five points for much of the quarter. Bixby went up by 12 points, briefly, in the latter part of the period, but Gronigan hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer to pull the Bruins back within nine, 44-35, heading into the fourth quarter. Led by Oliver with 17 points, Bartlesville made a valiant run in the final period. Three times the Bruins narrow the margin to three points. Then, in the final two minutes, Oliver’s three-pointer narrow the gap to two points, 56-54. After Bixby pushed out to a 58-54 advantage, Oliver put two free throws to bed to again reduced the difference to two points. But, the fifth foul on Oliver — when he appeared to be maneuvering for position for a three-point shot — proved to be the final blow for the Bruins. Next up, they play at home twice this week, starting with Tuesday’s showdown against Sapulpa.

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Bixby High School Athletics

SPARTANS HOLD OFF BRUINS

MIKE TUPA

Examiner Enterprise | 1/27/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Mike Tupa