By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
EDMOND – Yukon gave it that “old college try.”
The Millerettes just didn’t have enough horses to pull off the upset.
Edmond Memorial turned back the short-handed Millerette upset bid, 50-38, in the opening round of the Region 2 Tournament on the Lady Bulldogs home court.
YHS, 6-17, kept the game close throughout the night, but just couldn’t make a big enough run to catch Memorial.
Memorial lost the regional title to Choctaw 49-26 on Saturday.
“I was really proud of the girls,” Millerette head coach Roy Wyckoff said. “Our game plan was we wanted to run the clock and be real deliberate to slow them down and keep the score low. I thought out girls did a tremendous job of that.
“It got a little insurmountable that third quarter,” he said. “We wanted to keep it low and in that fourth quarter we turned it up a little bit and the girls did a great job of making a run.
“It has just been a tough season, we have dealt with a lot of adversity and I was really proud of the girls in that locker room in how they finished well and competed down to the last second. They dealt with a lot and I was proud of how they conducted themselves and was proud to be their coach for sure.”
The Millerettes were down by 15, 35-20, early in the fourth quarter, but made a run thanks to a pair of treys from A’muniuque Holmes that cut the margin to 10, 36-26, with 6:33 left in the game. A trey from Sunny Middleton brought the lead down to nine, 38-29 with 5:03 remaining.
Memorial ran the lead back to 14, 44-30, on shots from Erin Erdoes and Taylor Norman. Yukon did cut the lead to 10, 46-36 on a field goal and a pair of free throws from Jaylee Watson, but it would be as close as the Millerettes would come.
Memorial did run out to a 7-0 lead to open the game. But, the Millerettes settled down and used a field goal and a trey from Middleton and a bucket from Holmes to close the lead to 9-7.
A Holmes trey made it a one-point game 11-10 and Middleton followed with a trey and a field goal to keep the game at one, 16-15, with 4:25 left in the half.
Memorial used a trey and a free throw from Norman to finish the half on a 6-0 run and a 22-15 halftime lead.
“Memorial got up 7-0 and we called a time out, and the girls remained calm,” Wyckoff said. “They could have folded right there, but we told them to keep fighting. We knew Memorial was going to make plays because they are a good team. I thought our girls did a good job of making it difficult on them.
“We got a little bit shook to start that third quarter and made some turnovers and all of a sudden we were down 15 and that made it a little bit too much to overcome against a good team,” he said. “We didn’t do a good job of moving without the ball and attacking to create opportunities. They made us pay for it.
“We told them that we needed to turn it up and be more aggressive in that fourth quarter. We did a good job of that.”
Memorial turned four straight YHS turnovers into a 31-19 lead. The Millerettes scored only five points in the third quarter and trailed by 15, 35-20.
YHS had gone into the game without two key starters in Meya Case and Sydney Brown, who had missed the last two games of the season. But, the Millerettes were able to overcome that and kept the game close.
“These girls that played dealt with a lot on the coiurt as well as off,” Wyckoff said. “Sunny played the best game she has played all season, she was fantastic. We would have liked to have gotten an upset win, that would have been cool for her in her senior year. I was proud of all of them.”
