West Metro roundball roundup

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks around the West Metro on the basketball court , from all the great action at the PCI to the Putnam City girls’ tournament win in Chickasha and a few other big wins/upsets.

So I wanted to take a minute to hit some of the highlights, school-by-school, and look ahead to some potential big moments in the near future as we get ready for what could be a wild second half of the season.

Yukon

Let’s start with the Millers, who have had a roller-coaster 2011. Coming into the year with the momentum of a tournament championship in Ardmore, the Millers lost at home to rival Mustang, then lost three at the McGuinness Classic. But things turned up on Tuesday when Micole Nicholson scored 21 points in an upset of No. 5 Putnam City. Their tournament schedule is complete, but they’ve got big games against Choctaw and Edmond Santa Fe coming soon.

The Millerettes also face Choctaw and ESF before opening tournament play in Moore as Kelly Clarke’s girls try to get back in the top 20. Outside of an ugly loss to Mustang, Yukon has been playing well, and they showed their ability to defend inside by holding LaShawn Jones to nine points in an 11-point win over Putnam City on Tuesday.

Mustang

Sitting at No. 6 in the polls this week, the Broncos are showing that they’re legit. Avenging the loss to PC North from the Duncan tournament final with a 14-point win on Tuesday was a big statement behind 18 points from Robert Shaw and 14 from Ben Berry. Following Edmond North and Choctaw on the schedule is the Deer Creek tournament, which signaled the turnaround for this team last year, when they surprisingly went from No. 7 seed to tourney runner-up.

The Bronco girls looked like they had turned a corner wit the 20-point win at Yukon on Jan. 4, and that might still be the case, even though they’ve lost four straight. There’s not a bad team in the bunch among those four losses, though it certainly hurts confidence, especially the fourth-quarter performance at PC North, getting outscored 9-1 in an eight-point loss. But Robert Foreman will get his team to bounce back, though the schedule doesn’t get much easier, with Edmond North, Choctaw and the ultra-loaded Carl Albert Tournament coming up.