Lady Pioneers break home losing streak

By Ryan Stewart Stillwater NewsPress

STILLWATER — After the Stillwater Lady Pioneers walked off the court following a surprising victory against Sand Springs, senior point guard Ashby Wieligman described what the entire team was thinking.

“It just feels amazing,” she said.

The Lady Pioneers fended off a late run by Sand Springs to hold on for a thrilling 52-47 overtime victory, their first victory at home in two years.

Coach Carl Treat said it wasn’t just important to win, he said the biggest statement came with how they won and who they beat.

“It was exciting, Sand Springs is a really good team,” Treat said. “They’re 12-6 now and a ranked opponent. For us to be able to come in and play the way we did, guard them the way we did and come out with a win is just really, really good for us.”

The Lady Pioneers received a well-rounded performance from Wieligman, who finished with a team-high 17 points and hit 9-of-13 free throws, but when she went down with an injury in the fourth quarter she was scared to think how the game might change.

When she returned just minutes later, she did her best to make sure she helped her team hold on.

“It’s a good feeling, I was nervous coming back in,” she said. “It’s always scary coming back in right after you’ve gotten hurt but it felt good to come back in and have an impact on the win.”

It was a sloppy game throughout with both teams racking up more than 20 turnovers each but it was the Lady Pioneers’ defense and free throw shooting that ended up making the difference. Stillwater hit 20-of-29 free throws in a very physical contest.

“Defensively, we did a much better job in the second half and overtime of keeping them off the boards so we could maintain and extend our leads,” Treat said. “It was just a good, solid team win and our free throw shooting was key. I could go down the list and talk about every girl and that means it was just a really solid win over a good team.”

In addition to Wieligman’s 17 points, LaNesha Middleton added 12, Allison Smith and freshman Austyn Iven scored six point a piece and Hayley Fort scored two to wrap up the scoring for Stillwater.

Nichole Tate led the Lady Sandites with 21 points.

Wieligman, a senior, helped put the win in perspective using her entire high school career as the framework.

“It felt amazing, I was running on adrenaline the whole fourth quarter and overtime. I was exhausted,” she said. “It was so exciting, I don’t think I’ve ever beaten Sand Springs in my career and I’ve never had seven wins in my career.

“It’s nice to show our home fans that we can play some basketball and not just win on the road.

“It means a lot.”

Treat said he hopes his team can harness the emotion from the victory in order to focus with two tough games this week at home against Enid on Tuesday and Bartlesville on Friday night.

“It’s just very satisfying to beat a really good team, we’ve beaten a lot of teams we’re supposed to beat and now we’re to the point where we need to beat teams we’re not supposed to and we did that (Friday).”



Stillwater        9  18  31  45 — 52

Sand Springs  8  17  25  45  — 47

STILLWATER: Wieligman 3 9-13 17, Middleton 3 6-10 12, Gade 4 1-2 9, Iven 2 0-0 6, Smith 2 2-2 6, Fort 0 2-2 2. Totals: 14 20-29 52.

SAND SPRINGS: Tate 9 2-3 21, Sisney 3 2-4 10, Hampton 1 3-4 5, Benjamin 2 1-2 5, Reed 1 1-2 3, Janeway 1 0-0 2, Harp 0 1-2 1. Totals: 17 10-17 45.

3-pointers: Stillwater 4 (Wieligman 2, Iven 2); Sand Springs 3 (Sisney 2, Tate). Total Fouls: Stillwater 16, Sand Springs 24.

Fouled out: Stillwater (Smith), Sand Springs (Janeway, Sisney).