NORMAN — Faced with its last opportunity of the regular season to pull off an upset, Norman High came up just short against Class 6A’s second-ranked Edmond Memorial on Friday. The Bulldogs used a second-half Tiger scoring drought to pull away and then hold on for the 59-54 victory.
NHS was able to cut a 13-point Memorial lead to four with 24 seconds left, but that was as close as the Tigers would get, and the Bulldogs hit enough free throws down the stretch to eke out the victory.
“They’ve only lost two games in the last two years for a reason,” coach Jeff McCullough said of Memorial. “They know how to win games. They know how to step it up on defense and how to get a basket when they need one.”
With Connor Madole spending most of the second half on the bench after picking up his fourth foul early in the third quarter, the Tigers had trouble putting up points. They were unable to penetrate the paint and the post game was nonexistent. The result was that when the outside shots stopped falling, the Tigers went scoreless for more than three minutes through the third and fourth quarters.
Memorial took advantage, going on a 9-2 run to push the lead to 48-35. Madole returned shortly thereafter and, along with Rico Hogan, hit back-to-back threes to get NHS back into the game, but the Tigers were unable the complete the comeback.
Hogan was the major reason the Tigers were still in a position to make a fourth-quarter run. He finished with 21 points, 13 of those in the second half, and was the only Tiger to have it going on offense in the third quarter. Madole finished with eight points, five rebounds and three assists in limited minutes, and George Kittle added 10 points and eight boards. James Woodard led Memorial with 16 points and seven rebounds.
The Tigers entered the game looking to score a momentum-building upset as they head into the last week of the regular season, but it was the Bulldogs who controlled the pace of the game, especially as the Tigers dealt with foul trouble. The loss moved NHS to 0-7 against top-10 teams from Class 5A and 6A.
“We’re just one or two possessions away from winning these games,” McCullough said. “But until we start doing the little things right all the time we aren’t going to beat the elite teams like Edmond Memorial.”
The Tigers might get another shot at revenge against the Bulldogs. The two teams are positioned to meet again in the second round of the playoffs if NHS defeats Putnam City West and Memorial beats Yukon.
Corbin Hosler 366-3528 chosler@normantranscript.com
