The Lady Titans (6-1) survived an up and down tournament to finish third in the 26th Annual Lady Jaguar Classic.

Carl Albert Head Coach Tim Price was a bit worried going into the three day tournament, which started last Thursday, because of the long holiday lay-off for his girls.

The No. three ranked team in 5A hadn’t been on the court since a blowout victory against El Reno on Dec 20.

The Lady Titans shook off some early shooting rust to take a 12-5 lead after one quarter against the Norman Lady Tigers (1-5). Carl Albert shot 2-8 from the field in the quarter but held Norman to 1-8 shooting on defense with 6 turnovers.

By the half, Carl Albert held a 23-13 lead. Kaley Hallmark continued a very strong junior campaign leading the way with 13 points and 4 rebounds on 3-3 shooting from the field and 2-4 shooting from the 3-point line.

The game was humming along smoothly for Carl Albert until near the end of the third quarter when senior leader Jordan Gilbert was hit with some foul trouble. Meanwhile, Norman finally started hitting some shots.

The Lady Tigers closed the quarter on an 8-2 run to narrow a 15 points lead down to 9 by quarter’s end. Norman hit 3-4 shots from distance in the quarter and forced 5 Carl Albert turnovers.

"I think we became too passive offensively," said Price on the drought. "And you got to give Norman some credit too. They hit some big shots and big 3’s"

The drought continued into the fourth quarter for the Lady Titans. Carl Albert went over six minutes without scoring a basket while Norman stormed back to tie the game at 40.

The two teams remained gridlocked at 43 with Carl Albert having a chance to win the game.

That’s when things got interesting.

Hallmark missed a 3-pointer that somehow Gilbert acrobatically saved from going out of bounds while simultaneously throwing over her shoulder to wide open senior guard Daesha Peason under the basket. Pearson nailed the layup at the buzzer and saved the Lady Titans from a first game disaster.

Pearson had been 0-5 until sinking the layup that ended up being the difference in the 45-43 win over Norman.  Pearson also had 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 assists for the night

Hallmark finished a solid effort with 17 points and 5 rebounds. Gilbert added 7 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists including the helper on the game winner.

"Kaley is quietly really really solid for us," said Price on Hallmark’s night, "We put her on Norman’s best 3-point shooter. She’s just really solid. She plays smart. I never have to tell her to play harder."

The Lady Titans would see a stronger day two opponent in 6A’s number 13 ranked Sapulpa Lady Chieftains.

Sapulpa had beaten Mustang the night before fairly handily and was looking to keep it rolling, but Coach Price was familiar with the Lady Chieftains.

"We beat them last year staying in a 2-3 zone the whole time so we started in zone," said Price

The zone paid off. The Lady Titans had a 23-20 lead at halftime. However, Gilbert for the second night in a row was saddled with foul trouble.

Sapulpa grinded away at the slim margin in the second half before blowing out the Lady Titans 47-30. Sapulpa would go on to take second place in the tournament.

The final day of the tournament pitted the Lady Titans against the host team Lady Jaguars for the right to third place.

The Lady Jaguars, ranked 17th in 6A, came off a close loss to Booker T Washington the night before.

The first quarter was a hotly contested affair. Both teams weathered some early shooting woes at different points in the quarter. Carl Albert forced 5 turnovers in the quarter to turn a 7-2 deficit into a 10-9 advantage after the first quarter.

Pearson was aggressive this game. She opened the second with 6 straight points to bolster the lead up to 16-9. By halftime, Carl Albert held a 10-point lead. It was very clean half for Carl Albert limiting their turnovers to just 2. Their aggression to the basket also paid off in 5 extra points off free throws.

"I may have given Daesha a wake-up call early. She was specifically told to guard a specific way in the post and the first play of the game she didn’t do it so next whistle I yanked her," said Price. "After that she was great, she played really hard and with a lot of intensity. She helped us out a ton."

Gilbert who was clear of foul trouble this game poured in 13 points and 3 rebounds while shooting 4-6 from the field and a perfect 5-5 from the free throw line.

However, a lack of focus from Carl Albert cut into the 10-point margin immediately out the gate. Gilbert threw the ball away twice to start the half. The turnovers led directly to Lady Jaguar scores and sent Gilbert to the bench.

A refocused Gilbert would return to the game with the score still 28-22, but it was Pearson who took over. Pearson led a 7-3 run to end the quarter with Carl Albert extending their lead to 34-25.

The margin would hang around 8-9 points until Hallmark after stealing the ball was intentionally fouled while in the air on a layup attempt. Hallmark was shaken up but appeared to be fine as she walked off the floor.

Freshman Charissa Price canned both free throws followed by Gilbert getting an easy hoop off the inbound play, and the Lady Titans never looked back.  They took third place in the Lady Jag Classic by beating Westmoore in their own building 51-38.

It was a pretty clean effort for the Lady Titans with only 10 turnovers. Carl Albert forward Asher Sutterfield exemplified the team effort. Sutterfield started because of the size advantage for Westmoore and helped out with 6 rebounds.

"I think one of the reason’s we kept our focus a little bit better today was because of what happened on Thursday against Norman," said Price on the team’s effort.

Gilbert had 20 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals on her way to an all-tournament selection. Pearson was huge finishing with 13 points 11 rebound and a steal as she claimed an all-tournament selection as well.

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