JOURNAL SPORTS
Enid’s frenetic pace was a bit too much for Shreveport to keep up with as the Outlaws outran the Mavericks 139-126 in a battle of The Basketball League Central Division leaders at Centenary’s Gold Dome Saturday night.
Enid ran its win streak to 12 games with the win and its record to 18-3. The loss snapped Shreveport’s win streak at eight and dropped the Mavericks to 18-4.
Shreveport plays again Friday when it travels to Oklahoma to face Potawatomi before clashing with Enid again Saturday.
Shreveport was led in scoring by its top scorers on the season as Paul Parks and Paul Harrison both tallied 26 points. Alanie Moore followed with 18 points, PJ Meyers 16 and Tyrone Jordan 15 on a team-high four 3-pointers. Meyers led the Mavs with seven assists.
Enid got a double-double from Ricardo Artis II who had 33 points and 15 rebounds. Darin Johnson had 31 points and Daylon Guy 27 points. Guy and Kadavion Evans both gave out seven assists and Evans scored 15.
The Mavericks kept pace for a half by shooting 65 percent and trailed by just 72-70.
But the Outlaws gradually pulled away, building a 16-point lead at 97-81 on a Darin Johnson 3-pointer seven minutes in. Enid led 101-87 after three quarters and built its biggest lead of the game at 116-98.
Shreveport went on a 12-0 run to pull within 116-110 on a DeAndre McIntyre layup with a little more than seven minutes left. McIntyre made one of two free throws a minute later to get the Mavs within 118-113 but that was the closest they got.
A Paul Parks driving layup with four and a half minutes left got Shreveport within six at 123-117. The visitors scored the next six points to move on top 129-117 and the Mavs couldn’t get any closer than 10 the rest of the way.
Shreveport finished the game shooting 56 percent from the field (54-of-96) but hit on only 30 percent of its 3-point attempts (8-of-27). Enid hit 60 percent of its shots (54-of-90) and 42 percent from beyond the arc at 13-of-31.
Friday night, Shreveport had more players score in double figures than Waco dressed out in a 142-105 beating of the Royals.
AJ Cheeseman led eight Mavericks scoring in double-digits with 24 points (a season high) and added nine rebounds. Tavin Cummings scored a point a minute in playing time with 19 points, DeAndre McIntyre scored 16, Paul Harrison 13 and Tyrone Jordan, PJ Meyers and Alanie Moore all had 12.
The Royals, who had only won one game in their previous 19, stood toe-to-toe with the SMAVS in the early going tying the game 26-26 on a Ruston Hayward bucket with a little less than a minute and a half left in the first quarter.
Shreveport’s depth then took its toll on the outmanned Royals as it pulled away in the second quarter and led 70-53 at the half. Cheeseman had 17 of his 24 in the first two quarters and Jordan and Cummings had 11.
Waco’s Hayward led all scorers with 34 points, 22 in the first half and finished with a double-double with a game-high 11 rebounds. CJ Carter Jr. added 26 for the Royals.
Photo by LEE HILLER