bluesooner17
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Choctaw star Ana Llanusa sat on the edge of her seat on the bench a good portion of the second quarter Friday watching and hoping her teammates kept things close.
Against No. 7 Putnam West, that’s no easy task without the Oklahoma commitment due to foul trouble. But her freshman sister, Aliyah Llanusa, stepped up with six points, and senior Allyssa Sievert delivered big plays to keep things close.
That allowed Ana Llanusa to enter with less than two minutes left and take the reins the rest of the way, leading No. 5 Choctaw to a big 58-52 victory around a budding supporting cast.
“I think we can be unstoppable if we wanted to,” Ana Llanusa said. “When everybody’s involved, you can’t just focus on one person, you have to focus on everybody. I think it helped a lot, and it’s going to continue to help us.”
Ana Llanusa scored 23 points — 18 after re-entering the game late in the first half — and grabbed 12 rebounds. She also had three assists and three steals.
But it was the work of her teammates that provided the spark.
Sophomore Bailey Golden had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Senior Zahria White had nine points along with playing solid defense in the low post against Putnam West star Gabrielle Johnson, who had 14 points and seven rebounds.
“You look at Ana and she was the best player on the floor, in my opinion, but I was really proud of the rest of the team, too,” Choctaw coach Ryan Maloney said. “We had multiple contributions.”
That wasn’t the case 10 days ago in a loss to Midwest City when the Yellowjackets had only two players score around Ana Llanusa.
Things still weren’t perfect Friday.
Choctaw (17-2) committed 21 turnovers. It also struggled to put away Putnam West (15-3) until late in the game, breaking a 44-all tie with a 12-3 run — eight from Ana Llanusa — in a five-minute span.
“Against a team like PC West you’re going to turn the ball over,” Maloney said. “They press and double. They double-teamed us the whole second half, and we made mistakes. It’s a lesson learned. It’s always better to learn a lesson on a win than a loss, so I was proud of the girls.”
Choctaw 12 14 16 16 - 58
PC West 11 10 18 13 - 52
Choctaw: An. Llanusa 23, Golden 10, White 9, Al. Llanusa 8, Fairley 4, Sievert 4.
PW: Skanes 14, Johnson 14, Cowen 9, McAlphin 8, Green 3, Nolan 2, Furman 2.
Against No. 7 Putnam West, that’s no easy task without the Oklahoma commitment due to foul trouble. But her freshman sister, Aliyah Llanusa, stepped up with six points, and senior Allyssa Sievert delivered big plays to keep things close.
That allowed Ana Llanusa to enter with less than two minutes left and take the reins the rest of the way, leading No. 5 Choctaw to a big 58-52 victory around a budding supporting cast.
“I think we can be unstoppable if we wanted to,” Ana Llanusa said. “When everybody’s involved, you can’t just focus on one person, you have to focus on everybody. I think it helped a lot, and it’s going to continue to help us.”
Ana Llanusa scored 23 points — 18 after re-entering the game late in the first half — and grabbed 12 rebounds. She also had three assists and three steals.
But it was the work of her teammates that provided the spark.
Sophomore Bailey Golden had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Senior Zahria White had nine points along with playing solid defense in the low post against Putnam West star Gabrielle Johnson, who had 14 points and seven rebounds.
“You look at Ana and she was the best player on the floor, in my opinion, but I was really proud of the rest of the team, too,” Choctaw coach Ryan Maloney said. “We had multiple contributions.”
That wasn’t the case 10 days ago in a loss to Midwest City when the Yellowjackets had only two players score around Ana Llanusa.
Things still weren’t perfect Friday.
Choctaw (17-2) committed 21 turnovers. It also struggled to put away Putnam West (15-3) until late in the game, breaking a 44-all tie with a 12-3 run — eight from Ana Llanusa — in a five-minute span.
“Against a team like PC West you’re going to turn the ball over,” Maloney said. “They press and double. They double-teamed us the whole second half, and we made mistakes. It’s a lesson learned. It’s always better to learn a lesson on a win than a loss, so I was proud of the girls.”
Choctaw 12 14 16 16 - 58
PC West 11 10 18 13 - 52
Choctaw: An. Llanusa 23, Golden 10, White 9, Al. Llanusa 8, Fairley 4, Sievert 4.
PW: Skanes 14, Johnson 14, Cowen 9, McAlphin 8, Green 3, Nolan 2, Furman 2.
