The season’s still young for the Carl Albert Titans and MacArthur Highlanders, but the early season didn’t stop either team from turning this matchup into a clash of wills and styles. Carl Albert ultimately out-willed MacArthur in a 72-60 victory on the road for the Titans first win on the year.

MacArthur came into to the game looking to shoot the lights out of their gym, but it was Carl Albert that was able to get ahead early on the back of junior forward Wes Smith’s 3-point shooting and some pretty sound execution and ball movement on offense. Smith came out making his first three shots on the night including to 3-pointers to help build a 13-4 lead in the first quarter.

MacArthur would settle in led by their senior guard Trent Meisel who had eight of his 17 points in the first quarter, cutting the deficit down to 22-16 at the end of the quarter.

Carl Albert opened up their lead again in the second quarter with their bread and butter, post play. Forwards Cameron Warren and Hayden Howell were able to get going in the second quarter. Warren was everywhere in the second dropping nine of his 21 points. He also mixed in a block, two steals, two assists and three rebounds in that quarter alone.

“Cameron’s our best player. He’s that guy that stabilizes everything,” said Carl Albert coach Jay Price of Warren. “He just makes plays on both ends of the court.”
Warren capped off his tremendous second quarter by banking in a three-pointer off the backboard (don’t think he called it) at the buzzer to jump the Carl Albert lead up to 42-27 heading into intermission.

“We weren’t looking for a bank shot, but that actually was the shot we were looking for,” said Price of the buzzer beater. “It’s funny because it’s his only 3-pointer and he’s a good shooter but that’s his only one is a bank shot at halftime. We’ll take it though.”

The Titans had found their rhythm going into break. It looked like Howell and Warren were prepared to pound the Highlanders into submission in the post. The shooters of MacArthur save for Meisel seemed to be corralled effectively. Carl Albert was ready to cruise. Then, the third quarter struck.

MacArthur got hot from the 3-point line led by Trace Cook and put up a 24 point third quarter. Meanwhile on the offensive side of the ball, Carl Albert had gotten away from its game plan of working inside-out. MacArthur trimmed the lead down to 53-51 at the end of the third quarter. 

“We came out in the third quarter and started letting them shoot 3’s, “said Price of the MacArthur run. “We started getting in a hurry and not dumping it inside, and they started making a run.”

A back and forth last quarter was surely on the rise. Cue Hayden Howell. With the Carl Albert up 54-51, Hayden Howell took over the game scoring 11 straight points for Carl Albert. Howell dominated the offensive glass with put back after put back to seal the game away. He tallied 6 offensive rebounds in the fourth and finished his night with 33 points and 18 rebounds.

“At the end of the game of the game, we started getting it back inside and making free throws,” said Price. “That’s our definite advantage. It was against Lawton-Mac and should be against a lot of teams.”

Carl Albert didn’t exactly follow the game plan to the letter. It got sloppy at times especially down the stretch, but they showed flashes of what this team can be at its best. For Coach Price, that’s a start.

“We just want to improve; that’s our goal now is improvement," said Price. “I want to use these 10 days or so off to really shore up some things we need to improve on, defensive positioning and boxing out.”