The Wellington student section had “black out” night at the El Dorado game.

by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The weather outside turned warmer Friday and so did the Wellington basketball teams.

The Crusader boys beat El Dorado 59-40 while the Wellington girls won 50-30 earlier in the night.

It was a good evening for the junior varsity teams as well. Derek Driskell hit a buzzer beater in the boys jv game and would win in overtime 46-42. The Wellington girls JV won 51-19.

For the varsity boys, it was welcome relief after three straight defeats to start January.

“We really have had a bad taste in our mouth since Christmas break,” said Brian Buchanan, Wellington head boys basketball coach. “But we came out focused and I’m tickled pink. We passed the ball and forced some turnovers.”

Three players reached double figures for Wellington. Trevor Nance had 19, A.J. Snipes 16 and Colin Reichenberger 10.

The Crusaders never trailed in this one, opening with a 20-10 first quarter lead and adding to the point total at halftime 35-19. El Dorado would come back in the third quarter, shaving the lead to 43-34. But the Crusaders would eventually seize the momentum in the fourth outscoring the Wildcats 16-6.

With the win Wellington improves to 6-4 and will now travel to Chaparral on Wednesday to play Ark City at 6 p.m. in the first round of the Roadrunner Classic.

“That isn’t an easy first round opponent,” Buchanan said. “But if we play the kind of defense that we played tonight, we should be all right.”

The bracket for the Chaparral tournament is here.

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Freshman Shayland French gets the deuce in Friday’s win over El Dorado.

In the girls game, Wellington had little trouble with the Wildcats. The Lady Dukes have dominated the Wildcats over the years and Friday was no exception.

Wellington opened with a 12-6 first quarter lead and would expand the lead to 29-16 at the half. The Crusaders would then hold the Wildcats to two points in the third quarter, and would go into the fourth, leading 38-18.

The Crusaders allowed El Dorado to pull within 11 points at one point in the fourth but would pull away for the win .

Lauryn Snipes and Avery Rusk both scored 14 points.

The Crusaders have the week off and will play in the Haven Tournament the week after. The bracket is expected to be released on Monday.

Post game interview of Eric Adams:

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JV scores: Girls: 

Wellington 51. El Dorado 19

Mariah Moore 11, Madison Lewellen and Mekenna Adams with 8, Shayland French with 6, Avery Rusk 5,Tayland French 4, Taylor Zimmermann, Gracie Fink, Shelby McNamara, Abby Lowe all with 2.

Boys:

C Team: Wellington 26 El Dorado 32

Hilt 1 Cary 2 Adams 1 Frame 3 Burresh 5 Edwards 6 LeGrand 4 Long 2 Jones 2

JV team: Wellington 46 El Dorado 42 OT

Driskell 8, Phelps 10, Walton 5, Edwards 2, Hamel 16, King 4.

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