Jets face Aggies for league lead

Bruce Campbell, Enid News & Eagle, Okla.
·2 min read

Feb. 25—Northern Oklahoma College Enid men's basketball team travels to Murray State Thursday with the Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference lead on the line.

The game is the second half of a women's-men's doubleheader. The women will tip off at 5:30, followed by the men.

Both teams are 3-0 in league play after the Aggies beat Northeastern A&M, 87-74 and the visiting Jets beat Redlands, 94-71. Murray State (6-2) has won five straight. NOC Enid (5-1) has won four straight.

NOC Enid has four players averaging in double figures — Jalen Stamps (17.8), Teyon Scanlan (11.7), Ikenna Okeke (11.5) and Quentin Harvey (10.0). They are averaging 92.7 points per game while allowing 71.2.

Jerry Carraway (13.8) leads the Aggies offense. Murray State is averaging 86.3 points while allowing 71.3. Murray State returns seven players from last year's conference championship team.

"Murray State is really athletic with a lot of good shooters," said Jets coach Chris Gerber. "The key for us will be controlling what we can control. It's going to be a game of runs. Both of us have high powered offenses. Both of us will have runs and we'll go through dry spells. We have to control our dry spells and be able to grind it out to score. When they go through their dry spell, we have to take advantage of it."

NOC Enid's women, 1-3 and 0-3, are trying to break a three-game losing streak. The Lady Jets had near misses against Seminole (64-61) and Redlands (66-61) the last two games.

The Lady Jets are led by Lauren Wade (18.0), Madelyn Hankins (14.3) and Kristen Readel (11.3). They are averaging 77 points a game while allowing 67.5.

Murray State (1-1, 0-1) has played only two games this season. They lost to Redlands (65-53) in its lone conference game.

"We're ready to get back on the floor," said Lady Jets coach Kelli Jennings. "We need to get over the hump, and we hope Thursday is the time for that to happen. It's been close the last couple of games — there were a couple of possessions where we don't need to turn the ball over or get a shot to fall. It's going to happen. We're excited about having a chance for it to happen."

Campbell is a former sports writer and current part-time writer for the News & Eagle, enidnews@enidnews.com.

Have a question about this story? Do you see something we missed? Do you have a story idea for Sports? Send an email to daver@enidnews.com.