Byng boys upset No. 6 Madill
Feb. 14—BYNG — One could make the argument that first-year Byng head coach Jared Gambrel notched the biggest win of his career last Friday when his Pirates stunned Class 4A No. 6 Madill 35-28 inside the Bill Koller Fieldhouse.
Byng, No. 19 in Class 4A, improved to 17-7 on the year, while Madill left town at 20-3. The Wildcats had defeated Byng 39-38 earlier this year on a 3-pointer at the buzzer. The Pirates also claimed the Lake Country Conference championship with the victory.
"Tonight was an absolute brutal battle. Our boys fought tooth and nail for every single second of the game," Gambrel told The Ada News. "I'm extremely proud of every single one of them. Everyone did their job. They did their job to perfection and we were able to push through despite our shooting performance."
The Byng girls started a sweep with a 36-18 win. The Lady Pirates improved to 15-9 on the season while Madill dropped to 13-11.
Coach Luke Clark's club won despite being without the services of leading scorer Alona Cooper, who is sidelined with a shoulder injury.
Both Byng teams wrapped up the regular season Tuesday night in Latta. They now travel to Broken Bow for a Class 4A District Tournament matchup with the host Savage teams. The Broken Bow boys are 14-9 and the Broken Bow girls sit at 13-9.
BOYS
Byng 35, Madill 28
The Pirates limited the talented Wildcats to single-digit scoring in every quarter with a gritty defensive effort.
"It's extremely hard to win a game when you only score 35 points. But defensively, they were absolutely phenomenal," Gambrel said. "Holding the No. 6 team in the state to only 28 points says a lot about the toughness and grit our boys possess defensively."
Byng led 8-6 after the first quarter and carried a 12-11 lead into the halftime break. Byng outscored Madill 12-8 in the third period and owned an 11-9 advantage in the fourth period.
Malachi Schilreff paced the BHS offense with a game-high 21 points. He connected on one 3-point shot. No other Byng player scored more than four points.
Ethan Wilkerson, who will play college basketball at Southeastern, scored 18 points to pace the Wildcats. He sank a trio of 3-point shots. Greg Padgett made a pair of triples and scored seven points for the visitors.
GIRLS
Byng 36, Madill 18
The game featured an odd linescore. Byng scored nine points in every quarter and limited Madill to just three total points in each of the final three frames.
Clark said limiting Madill to just nine points over the final three periods was huge.
"We did a great job defensively. Madill came out early in the first quarter and hit three 3s to get us to a deadlocked first quarter, and after that, we just continued to guard, and we were able to rebound, and then we hit big shots when we needed to," he explained. "I can't say enough about our defensive effort. We held them to two 2-point field goals for the entire game."
Cadence Carlos led the BHS offense with 13 points, and Brylee Baird also hit double figures with 10. Both players made a pair of 3-pointers.
Blakely Miller followed with five points and hit one trey.
La'miyah Brown paced the Madill offense with six points via a pair of 3-point baskets, and Luciana Douglas chipped in five points and made one triple. Haylee Elkins also hit one 3-pointer for the visitors.
