Title tradition

BY BARRY LEWIS World Sports Writer
Sunday, March 14, 2010
3/15/10 at 10:48 AM

Shea Seals emerged from the Booker T. Washington basketball team's Mabee Center locker room with a smile and a gold ball a prize that he first had within his grasp in 1993, but had never been able to walk away with until Saturday afternoon following the Hornets' 42-30 victory over top-ranked Memorial in the Class 5A boys state championship game.

"Right now, winning this championship takes away all the pain I've dealt with in the losses I've had in previous state tournaments," said Seals, the University of Tulsa's career scoring leader.

Tharone Chilton, in his fourth state tournament, scored 16 points to help lift the sixth-ranked Hornets (20-9) to their first state title since 2002 and state record-tying 14th overall. Class 3A Oklahoma City Millwood won its 14th earlier in the day. Memorial (25-3), which dropped to 5A from 6A this season, was looking for its second state title in three years and had previously been 4-2 in championship games.

Saturday was the 17th anniversary of Seals' senior season at McLain ending with a two-point loss to Ardmore in the state final at the Mabee Center. Two years ago, Seals' first season as the Hornets' coach ended with a one-point loss to Guthrie at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City when a potential winning basket came a split-second after the buzzer. Last year, the Hornets were ranked No. 1 when they lost in the semifinals by one point to Edison, a team they had beaten in all three of their previous meetings during the season.

"We've been working on this for three years, and we finally got it done," Hornets junior center C.J. Hyslop said. "Tharone played a heck of a game."

This season, it was a role reversal for the Hornets, who were 0-3 against Memorial, which entered the final with an 18-game winning streak.

"I guess the percentages caught up to us," Memorial coach Eric Savage said. "They were the better team today."

Three weeks earlier, Memorial led 35-9 at halftime en route to a 69-43 victory over the Hornets. On Jan. 26, Memorial rolled past the Hornets 56-36. Eight days earlier, however, the Hornets showed improvement when they only lost 39-34 to Memorial in the area championship.

"That was a huge confidence boost," Hornets freshman forward Juwan Parker said. "We knew we could play with these guys because the first two games were blowouts and we lost our confidence a little bit. But after that last game we knew we could do it."

The Hornets led during most of the championship game, but Memorial reeled off six straight points to forge a 25-25 tie on C.J. Wells' driving basket with 5:45 remaining. That, however, was the Chargers' only basket of the fourth quarter.

"We knew we had to pick it up defensively," Chilton said. "We picked up steals and made our free throws."

Twenty-two seconds later, Chilton sank 1-of-2 free throws for a 26-25 lead the Hornets never relinquished. On the inbounds pass, Wells was called for his fifth foul and that led to Tyler Lockett sinking two free throws.

"That stopped the momentum we had," Savage said.

Chilton and Lockett combined to go 12-of-14 on free throws in the final 5:23 as the Hornets pulled away. Lockett finished with 11 points.

Although the final margin was 12, the Hornets only led 33-29 before Parker made two free throws with 1:04 left.

"Those last two minutes felt like 10 hours," Seals said.

Parker's late free throws were his only points after he struck the funny bone in his right arm and missed the last four minutes of the third quarter.

"He got a stinger and couldn't feel his hand for a while," Seals said.

Parker finished with eight points and eight rebounds.

"Defense was the key," Parker said. "And stopping Cameron (Downing) was the biggest part. C.J. did a perfect job on him, containing him the whole game."

The Hornets held Downing, the Chargers' 6-foot-8 senior center, to eight points after he scored 50 in the previous two tournament games. Memorial couldn't loosen up the Hornets' defense on Downing (who had a game-high 10 rebounds) as the Chargers missed all 12 of their 3-point shots.

The Hornets' defense, that allowed an average of only 39.6 points in their final five games, enabled Seals to finally savor his first state title after several near-misses.

"I've been fortunate to have this many opportunities to be a champion," Seals said. "God has blessed me with some good players, good teams and good schools. I'm grateful."

Swarming defense

Booker T. Washington’s defense allowed just 30 points in Saturday’s championship game. That marks the fourth-lowest score by a runner-up in a boys basketball championship game since 1950 (the first year boys basketball had three classes). The six times since 1950 a runner- up failed to score more than 30 points all happened during the 1950s or during the past decade. Here is the list:

24 Glencoe beat Fort Cobb- Broxton 39-24 in 2006.

25 Addington beat Rocky 37-25 in 1950.

28 Shawnee beat Muskogee 35-28 in 1951.

30 Booker T. Washington beat Memorial 42-30 in 2010.

30 Agra beat Thomas 31-30 in 2008.

30 Bristow beat Stillwater 31-30 in 1958.

— By Mark Foster, World sports Writer

History of BTW title games

Saturday marked the 18th time the Booker T. Washington boys team reached the state championship game in Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association basketball. of the previous 17 trips, the Hornets won 13 titles and lost four times. Until Saturday, Ada was the only team the Hornets faced twice.

A look at B.T. Washington’s results over the years:

2010: Booker T. Washington 42, Memorial 30
2009: Guthrie 58, Booker T. Washington 57
2005: OKC Southeast 81, Booker T. Washington 68
2002: Booker T. Washington 81, Ardmore 78
2001: Booker T. Washington 65, Ada 63, OT
1999: Booker T. Washington 59, Ada 47
1997: Booker T. Washington 66, OKC Capitol Hill 53
1996: Booker T. Washington 70, Norman 55
1995: Booker T. Washington 76, Midwest City 52
1987: Booker T. Washington 62, Putnam North 53
1986: Booker T. Washington 72, Edmond 53
1985: Booker T. Washington 78, Memorial 64
1984: Booker T. Washington 79, McLain 70
1983: OKC marshall 98, Booker T. Washington 89
1981: Booker T. Washington 78, Lawton Ike 68
1977: Booker T. Washington 105, OKC Douglass 89
1973: Booker T. Washington 74, Sapulpa 54
1971: Central 74, Booker T. Washington 57

— By Mark Foster, World sports Writer

Commemorative championship pages for sale on Monday

We will have commemorative pages for sale celebrating the state championship seasons for the Booker T. Washington boys, McAlester girls and Kansas girls.

The Tulsa World has created a full-color, high resolution front page honoring each team’s 2010 state championship win.

Each page is printed on photo paper and is the size of the front page of the Tulsa World’s print edition, about 12 inches by 21 inches. The cost is $35 each.

To order go to tulsaworld.com/store — the Tulsa World’s page reprint site—starting at 10 a.m. Monday. Then click on Page reproductions and enter the description of the school champion’s page you want.

Credit cards are accepted. For questions or more information, call (918) 732-8198 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday or e-mail picturethis@tulsaworld.com.

Slide Show

Here is an explanation of the buttons on the player above.

Play slide show with sound

Next image / play slide show without sound

Previous image

Expand the slide show to full screen

To see each slide

To see all of the Tulsa World slide shows, go to tulsaworld.com/photos.

Best ever

Booker T. Washington and Oklahoma City Millwood entered this weekend tied for the most boys basketball championships in state history. Both tacked an additional title on Saturday.

Central is alone in third place with 12 titles, its last coming in 2006.

Here is the list of the most boys basketball championships won (bold face indicates teams that won a title this season):

14: B.T. Washington, OKC Millwood

12: Central

8: El Reno, Norman, OKC McGuinness, Star Spencer

7: Boynton, OKC Classen, Oklahoma Christian

6: Byng, Frontier, Guthrie

5: Beggs, OKC Marshall, OKC Northeast, OKC Northwest, OKC Southeast, Pawnee, Preston, Purcell, Putnam City

— By Mark Foster, World sports Writer

Barry Lewis 581-8393
barry.lewis@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

Booker T. Washington players hoist their Class 5A championship trophy after defeating Memorial on Saturday at the Mabee Center. The Hornets finished with a 20-9 record. STEPHEN HOLMAN/Tulsa World

Booker T. Washington's Tharone Chilton grabs a defensive rebound Saturday. Chilton led the Hornets with 16 points and snagged five rebounds in BTW's win over Memorial. STEPHEN HOLMAN/Tulsa World

Memorial’s CameronDowning holds his team’srunner-up trophy as he,teammate Draper Sturdivantand coach eric Savage watchBooker T. Washington playersreceiver their championshipmedallions Saturday. STEPHEN HOLMAN/Tulsa World