TUPATALK: Bartlesville varsity hoops' teams snap into play Tuesday at Jenks; Huskies fall

Bartlesville High School’s first scheduled varsity basketball doubleheader has arrived.

The Lady Bruins and Bruins are set to open the season curtain tonight at Jenks High School in Frontier Valley Conference openers.

The Lady Bruins (0-0) and Jenks Lady Trojans (0-0) clash at 6:30 p.m., followed by the Bruins (1-1) and Jenks Trojans (0-0) showdown at 8 p.m.

Bartlesville boys charge into the contest with a pair of contests under their belt, both at showcase games in Texas.

Bartlesville’s mix includes four returning starters in Jordan Carter, Nick Smith, David Castillo and Aadhi Ayyappan, two talented transfers in Kent Girard and Daron Davis, and a handful of returning main rotation stalwarts such as Simian Gilkey and Cooper Wood, other experienced veterans and some talented varsity newcomers.

Jenks’ boys come into the contest ranked No. 4 in the latest OSSAA Class 6A poll; the Bruins received their highest ranking (No. 12) in a few years. Clent Stewart is in his eighth year as the Bruins head coach.

The Lady Bruins are led by first-year head coach Justyn Shaw, who grabbed the reins of a program coming off back-to-back single-digit win seasons.

A significant part of his roster includes veterans with prolific varsity experience, some of which include T’Keitha Valentine, Kate Gronigan, Ragen Hodge, Kaelynn Duncan and Mikka Chambers.

Shaw listed his starting lineup against Jenks as Valentine as point guard, Gronigan at a wing/forward, Jaiden Stevenson in the post, Duncan at guard and Payten Pregler at guard.

Rounding out the rest of the top 11 right now in the varsity list are Maider Ruiz, Grace McPhail, Kaydance Barnett and Karlee Joseph.

Ruiz is a foreign exchange student, Stevenson is a transfer from Ada High and Barnett is a transfer from Caney Valley High and the only freshman among the 11 girls listed.

Hodge — who is true forward height — is still bouncing back from a knee injury. She’ll be brought along slowly in deference to an effective recovery, Shaw said. Hodge also is a state medalist in the girls’ high jump.

The Lady Bruins came out on top in all three of their scrimmages, but Shaw said he expects Jenks to be better than its 6-12 record from last season.

Jenks features two big girls in the middle and accurate-shooting guards, he said.

“They’re going to be formidable,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Bartlesville faces perhaps even a more daunting test at 1 p.m. Thursday against Moore High, in the Bishop Kelley tourney. Moore won 16 games last season and finished one win shy of state.

Bartlesville won’t play its first home game until following Christmas break.

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Pawhuska done

I felt very sad about the Pawhuska High Huskies being eliminated from the Class A state playoffs. For the second-straight year, the Huskies (11-3) made it to the semifinals, only to be eliminated both years by Cashion High.

Cashion downed Pawhuska, 35-31, last Friday on the Ponca City High field.

A follow-up is planned later in the week.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: TupaTalk: Bartlesville High teams open campaign