A late second-quarter outbreak of points gave the Northside Lady Bears some breathing room at halftime.

Then in the third quarter, thanks to a relentless defense and improved shot selection, they helped make that lead stand as the Lady Bears rolled past Tulsa (Okla.) East Central, 57-31, in Thursday’s Taco Bell Tournament of Champions game at Southside Gym.

“We had better shot selection (after halftime),” Northside coach Rickey Smith said. “In the first half, we were taking real fast shots, not making the extra pass and I felt like the second and third period we finally had some good ball movement.

“We found the open man and we also got some offensive rebounds, which I thought was a big key. They’re athletic as heck. ... That was a good, quality win.”

Northside (5-0) outscored East Central in the third quarter, 23-3, in building a commanding 54-26 advantage and led by as many as 30 in the fourth.

After giving up 20 rebounds in the first half, the Lady Bears allowed just 11 boards in the second half. Also after getting nine points off of turnovers in the opening two quarters, Northside got 12 second-half points off East Central turnovers.

“Defensively, we switched it up and did a few things a little bit different,” Smith said. “But it just came down to getting some rebounds basically; we made a few stops, got a couple of easy baskets in transition and our confidence grew.”

Due to potential winter weather Saturday, the tournament games on that day have been canceled, so the ToC will finish up Friday at Southside.

Northside 57, Tulsa (Okla.) East Central 31

East Central 13 10 3 5 — 31

Northside 16 15 23 3 — 57

East Central: Armstead 14, Stone 9, Mitchell 3, Griffin 3, M. Blakley 1, B. Blakley 1.

Northside: Wolfenbarger 15, S. Bershers 12, Douglas 11, T. Bershers 9, Coleman 6, Mays 3, Q. Tillery 1.

Tentatively, action will begin at 3:30 p.m. with Ponca City (Okla.) taking on the winner of Thursday night’s late game between Bishop Miege (Kan.) and Howe, followed at 5 p.m. with Northside taking on Moore (Okla.).

In Thursday’s game, Northside trailed by three early in the second quarter, 19-16. But a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Jersey Wolfenbarger tied the score while sparking a 15-4 run.

The Lady Bears ended the opening half with six straight points, including a pair of baskets from senior Tiya Douglas. Her latter basket came on a spectacular pass provided by teammate Jazz Coleman, and Douglas’ finish made it 31-23 at halftime.

Northside kept it going after returning to the court.

The Lady Bears began the second half on an 8-1 run. Later, Wolfenbarger drained a 3 from the corner to build the lead to 18 points, 44-26.

Northside scored 10 more points to end the third while holding East Central scoreless. Douglas capped the tremendous quarter by receiving a pass down low from guard Keith Tampus for a finishing shot with two seconds remaining in the quarter, making it 54-26.

“I thought Tiya Douglas came in and gave us a good spark offensively,” Smith said. “She’s slowly coming back from that knee injury and she gave us a good spark, and then I thought Jersey really in the third quarter shot the ball well.


“We can get a good shot a lot of times, but if we’re a little bit patient, we can get a great shot, and so for us to pass up a good shot for a better shot and then to crash the boards, I thought we got some offensive boards and getting a little bit more physical.”

Wolfenbarger ended up with 15 points and made three 3's on 5-of-8 field goal attempts. Sara Bershers added 12 points, while Douglas had 11.

Sophomore forward Tracey Bershers nearly had a double-double with nine points and nine boards. She also went a perfect 6-of-6 from the foul line, with the Lady Bears going 21-of-24 from the stripe.

Journey Armstead led East Central with 14 points, and she made two 3's.
