THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Inola High School Athletics

You had a feeling that based on the score the first time these two teams met it would be a defensive battle. In the season opener when Fort Gibson and Inola squared off, it took a last-minute basket by Baylee London for the Lady Tigers to pull out a 34-32 win. Saturday night in the rematch, the game was again a physical defensive battle but there would be no last-minute heroics for the Lady Tigers this time as Inola upset No. 4-ranked Fort Gibson 43-33 in the championship game of the Class 4A Area IV regionals at the Brooks Walton Activity Center. Though the Fort Gibson offense never really seemed to get in sync, they led most of the first half, owning a 17-15 lead at intermission despite four 3s by the Lady Longhorns. Inola kept up the 3-point shooting in the third quarter with three more and grabbed a 23-20 lead which they never relinquished, but still led by only four 28-24 at the end of the period. Fort Gibson cut the deficit down to two with a basket thirty seconds into the fourth quarter but Inola got another 3-pointer from Madison Courtney and a bucket by Baylee Wiginton to jump back out to a 33-26 advantage. From that point on, Inola started playing keep away, forcing the Lady Tigers to foul and the Lady Longhorns took advantage of the opportunities, going 8-of-11 at the charity line in the final stanza and outscoring Fort Gibson 7-2 over the final 1:40 of the game. “They did a great job so give them a lot of credit,” said a subdued Tigers’ coach Chuck London. “We weren’t prepared to play. We got outcoached. I did a poor job.” Zoey Whiteley led the Fort Gibson scoring with 12 points before fouling out late in the game and Kynzi London added nine as the Lady Tigers tied their second-lowest point total of the season while shooting just 32 percent from the field. Courtney was the leading scorer in the game with 16 points for Inola including four 3-pointers that all seemed to come at crucial times in the game. Kelsie Roberts was also in double figures with 10 points including 4-for-4 from the free-throw line down the stretch. Both teams will move to next week’s area tournament at Tulsa Webster. Inola will take on Holland Hall Friday in the winners bracket while the Lady Tigers will have to fight back in the consolation bracket as they seek to make their 15th straight appearance in the state tournament. They’ll face Grove at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. “Playing back in the consolation bracket is the hard way,” said London. “It will test you. It’s three straight days. Are we capable of it? Sure, but it’s a very difficult area tournament and we’ll play a quality team in every game. But we still have a chance.”

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Inola High School Athletics

LADY TIGERS FALL TO INOLA IN REGIONAL TITLE GAME IN RETURN BATTLE OF SEASON OPENER

NICK HAMPTON

Muskogee Phoenix | 2/24/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Von Castor