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  • The Stillwater High School boys basketball team had the word "Family" and a photo of the Budke family imprinted on their warmup shirts.

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November 30, 2011

Stillwater High boys lose to Edmond Santa Fe

By Jason Elmquist Stillwater NewsPress

STILLWATER, Okla. — Tuesday night at Pioneer Fieldhouse wasn’t all about winning or losing a basketball game, it was an evening of playing in a manner that would honor a family in mourning.

The Stillwater High boys basketball team started their season — which has been dedicated to the late Oklahoma State women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke — by pushing one of the top five teams in the state to the brink. But ultimately, came up just short.

“This was a heck of a way to dedicate a season to coach Budke,” SHS coach Michael Davis said after a 47-32 loss to Edmond Santa Fe. “But thing about it is, I know coach Budke understands that in order to get to the mountain top, you’ve got to start low and then climb that mountain. And maybe this was a good reality check for us, to let us know that we have work to do.”

The warm-ups worn by Pioneer players had “Family” on the back, with a small picture of the entire Budke family underneath — including Brett Budke, a sophomore on the team, and former SHS basketball player Alex Budke.

Assistant coaches and several returning members from last year’s squad — including Alex Budke, who is a freshman on the basketball squad at St. Gregory’s University — also wore the warm-up shirts during the game, while several Pioneer players honored the former OSU women’s basketball coach with the initials “K.B.” on their shoes.

“It was a pretty emotional night with all our players who graduated last year were back,” Davis said. “So it was a pretty emotional thing. It’s emotional for me to even talk about it because that’s how close we all are. There’s not a day that goes by that you don’t think about it.”

Stillwater honored the fallen coach by proving size doesn’t always matter.

Edmond Santa Fe was taller than the Pioneers across the board — while SHS was also starting the season with a completely new starting five after losing the top seven players last year to graduation.

“In the end, I guess you could say their size was the difference in deciding that game because I didn’t realize they were that much taller than us — and it was at every position,” Davis said. “When we started three guys that are about 5-foot-5 — especially Dylan (Murrell) and Caleb (Watkins) — and they’ve got to match up against 6-2 or 6-3 — and they are as athletic as you’ll see.

“Then we had to fight like the dickens. We kept making runs and this and that to try to make a comeback, and we tonight we just came up short.”

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