Jaylen Lowe leads Owasso to 6A boys semifinals

BY BARRY LEWIS World Sports Writer
Friday, March 08, 2013
3/08/13 at 8:00 AM

Owasso's Jaylen Lowe has been a clutch playoff performer in football and on Thursday he helped lead the Rams to only their second state tournament victory in the school's basketball history that dates back more than 80 years.

Lowe had 28 points and Shake Milton scored 24 to propel No. 4 Owasso past No. 14 Putnam West 82-58 in the Class 6A state quarterfinals at Mabee Center.

So what does Lowe consider more thrilling - throwing six touchdown passes in a five-overtime playoff victory in 2010 or his performance Thursday?

"That's a tough question," Lowe said. "I'm going to say this one because I'm a senior."

Owasso was the only East team to survive the quarterfinals as all the top four ranked teams won.

It was a case of role reversal for Edmond Memorial and Putnam City as the co-second-ranked teams survived potential tying last-second 3-pointers to hang on to victories after suffering heartbreaking losses in the 2012 state tournament.

Jordan Woodard blocked Jordan Phelps' trey as time expired to preserve Edmond Memorial's 55-52 victory over Broken Arrow. Dexter Dean had all 12 of his points in the fourth quarter to help Putnam City prevail 54-51 over defending champion Union, which missed a pair of 3s in the last four seconds.

Last year, Woodard missed a last-second shot in a 37-36 loss to Union in the title game at Mabee Center. And, Putnam City's Ronnie Boyce missed a tying 3 at the buzzer in last year's 56-53 quarterfinal loss to Edison. Boyce had 14 points in Thursday's win over Union.

In Thursday's other quarterfinal, Daryck Jones had 14 points to lead top-ranked Midwest City past No. 17 Booker T. Washington 67-54.

In Friday's semifinals, Edmond Memorial (24-2) will play No. 4 Owasso (23-3) at 6 p.m. and Midwest City (26-1) will meet Putnam City (26-2) at 9 p.m.

Owasso 82, Putnam West 58: Lowe had 14 points in each half for the Rams, who shot 62 percent from the field overall and 65 percent in the second half.

"To come out and play the way we did in the second half shows the kind of players that we have," Owasso coach Mark Vancuren said. "When we really needed some distance from them, Jaylen and Shake did a good job of running our stuff and getting us the shots we needed which were all high percentage shots."

Owasso led 37-29 at halftime, but the Patriots cut their deficit to 41-39 before the Rams broke the game open. Lowe, a Tulsa football signee, had 12 in the fourth quarter before exiting with 2:04 left. Lowe was 12-of-19 from the field.

"He's a special player," Vancuren said. "To me he's on a different level. In my opinion there's a lot of people who missed on him as a basketball player when they didn't come and see him play. I think he can play at the Division I level."

Both Lowe and Vancuren said that playing Booker T. Washington in the regional final prepared the Rams for Putnam West.

"We worked on their pressing us all week. We had 6 on 5 practice because Coach said it was like having six of them out there. That helped out a lot."

Milton was 7-of-9 from the field and made 10-of-11 free throws. Owasso's only other state tournament win was in 1978.

Travon Moore led Putnam West (15-12) with 17 points.

Edmond Memorial 55, Broken Arrow 52: The Bulldogs' defensive strategy, with a three-point lead after Broken Arrow called timeout with 3.7 seconds left, did not go exactly as coach Shane Cowherd planned.

"We didn't execute," Cowherd said. "We wanted to give a foul. I think two things happened - Jordan was cramping late and I think he thought he was a step slow and didn't want to allow a quick shot and give up 3. So then he decided to try to block a shot and makes a pretty nice play that about gave me a heart attack."

Wichita State signee Shaquille Morris had 23 points, including six dunks, and 13 rebounds for Memorial while Oklahoma signee Woodard added 19 points. Morris' dunk made it 54-48 with two minutes left and he had a key block with 39 seconds remaining.

Dontae Campbell, who scored Broken Arrow's first 14 points, led the Tigers (19-8) with 25 points and seven rebounds.

Putnam City 54, Union 51: David Bush led Putnam City with 16 points and nine rebounds. Carson Meier paced Union (17-10) with 14 points and seven rebounds.

It was a see-saw affair until Bush's 3-pointer with 5:20 left gave Putnam City a 40-38 lead and ignited a decisive 11-2 run.

Midwest City 67, Booker T. Washington 54: Torey Noel scored six in the fourth period to help the Bombers break the game open after they led only 44-41.

"We scrapped and fought and tried our very best there for 3 1/2 quarters, but their pressure is real and relentless and eventually broke us down," Hornets coach Joe Redmond said. "They had a good enough lead at different times, we put so much energy into fighting back and to get it to within one or two possessions, we didn't have enough in the tank to get over the hump. There were a few things I wish we could have done a little bit better but they kept us from doing things we wanted to do better."

Kevin Sims had 21 points to lead the Hornets (17-10) and Georgia signee Juwan Parker scored 13 - nine below his average.

"We didn't do anything really different except we doubled him (Parker) more than we do some other kids," Midwest City coach Dewayne Bradley said. "He's a great player, size-wise we can't keep him from getting shots off, but we made it difficult for him to get good shots."

6A Boys State

Quarterfinals

Thursday at ORU Mabee Center

Midwest City 62, B.T. Washington 54
Owasso 82, Putnam West 58
Edmond Memorial 55, Broken Arrow 52
Putnam City 54, Union 51

Semifinals

Friday at ORU Mabee Center

No. 4 Owasso (23-3) vs. No. 2 Edmond Memorial (24-2), 6 p.m.

No. 2 Putnam City (26-2) vs. No. 1 Midwest City (26-1), 9 p.m.

Final

Saturday at ORU Mabee Center

Championship, 7:45 p.m.

Summaries

MIDWEST CITY 67, B.T. WASHINGTON 54

B.T. Washington	14	7	17	16	-	54
Midwest City	12	11	20	24	-	67

B.T. Washington (17-10): Sims 21, J.Parker 13, Clark 8, Tease 5, Mitchell 3, Bitson 2, Chaney 2.

Midwest City (26-1): Jones 14, Neal 13, Neal 12, Brown 8, Corprew 6, C.Fair 6, Smith 6, L.Parker 2.

OWASSO 82, PUTNAM WEST 58

Putnam West	15	14	16	13	-	58
Owasso	15	22	16	29	-	82

Putnam West (15-12): Moore 17, Harris 12, Carter 10, T.Jolly 8, L.Jolly 6, King 3, Stallings 2.

Owasso (23-3): Lowe 28, Milton 24, Neph 11, Ellis 9, Crain 3, Culbertson 3, Anderson 2, Holderman 2.

Edmond Memorial 55, Broken Arrow 52

Broken Arrow	7	15	17	13	-	52
Ed. Memorial	16	13	16	10	-	55

Broken Arrow (19-8): Campbell 25, Huffman 11, Phelps 8, Cantrell 4, Davis 4.

Edmond Memorial (24-2): Morris 23, Woodard 19, Young 8, Holcomb 5.

Putnam City 54, Union 51

Putnam City	8	11	13	22	-	54
Union	14	5	14	18	-	51

Putnam City (26-2): Bush 16, Boyce 14, Dean 12, Smith 7, Goldsmith 3, Higgins 2.

Union (17-10): Meier 14, Olden 11, Palmer 10, Barton 8, Mead 5, Wannemacher 3.
Original Print Headline: Lowe and behold

Barry Lewis 918-581-8393
barry.lewis@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

Broken Arrow's Dontae Campbell and Edmond Memorial's Caleb McCain battle for control of the ball during Thursday's 6A boys state tournament game. MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World

Union's Josh Davis has his shot blocked by Putnam City's Ronnie Boyce during Thursday's 6A boys state tournament game. MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World