Frontier girls fall in Class B semifinals

By Brett Barger Stillwater NewsPress

OKLAHOMA CITY — Frontier coach Clay Stephens couldn’t help but put his face in his hands at halftime of Friday’s Class B girls semifinal.

Boynton-Moton missed a 3-point attempt, got the rebound and calmly sank a jumper as time expired.

That possession was an example of how easily the game went for Boynton, and how badly the game went for Frontier. The Lady Mustangs fell behind by 28 points at halftime, and never recovered in an 81-64 loss at the State Fair Arena.

Frontier (20-9) led twice early in the game before the game changed drastically. Boynton forced seven turnovers in a 15-0 run that blew the game wide open. Boynton made shots underneath the basket, and from the perimeter, while using its press to force turnovers. Boynton made only three more field goals than Frontier, but took 48 foul shots to Frontier’s 23.

“We were flat coming out. I was afraid of that,” Stephens said. “But you have to give Boynton a lot of credit. They shot a bunch of layups, and we didn’t rebound the ball very well.

“We didn’t attack very hard when they were pressing us. We’re too quick to try and pass it when we could’ve been taking the ball ourselves.”

Boynton led 50-22 at halftime. To put Boynton’s domination in perspective, Boynton’s 81 points were scored by only four players on a team of 11.

Frontier outscored Boynton 19-9 in the third quarter, and managed to cut the lead to 72-62 with 2:26 left in the game, but Boynton began running out the clock and making free throws to close out the game.

It was the last game for five Frontier seniors. Since their freshman year, they had their share of adversity. They lost in the Area tournament last year, and missed the playoffs in 2008. Frontier was determined to get to the “Big House.” Although the first trip didn’t end well, senior Hope Conneywerdy said they were happy to have achieved the goal of getting into the state tournament.

“It was a struggle in the beginning, freshman through junior year,” Conneywerdy said after scoring 22 points in her final game.

“We’re just happy we finally made it to the Big House.”

Conneywerdy and Jewell Horinek were the only seniors to reach double figures in their final  high school game.

“That’s a good bunch,” Stephens said of his seniors. “They’ve wanted this since they were freshman. We’ve been close. We just couldn’t get over the hump. To have it end like this is just so disappointing. But, I’m proud of those seniors.”



Boynton    26    50    59    81

Frontier    10    22    41    64

BOYNTON-MOTON: Hutchinson 9 14-20 33, She. Lang 6 7-11 20, Thomas 5 1-2 11 Sha. Lang 5 7-15 17. Totals: 25 29-48

FRONTIER: Young 2 0-0 5, Dummer 1 0-0 2, Miner 2 0-0 5, Conneywerdy 6 7-10 22, Gum 4 2-4 10, Horinek 5 3-7 14, Sigwing 2 1-2 6. Totals 22 13-23 64

3-pointers: Boynton 2 (Hutchinson, She. Lang); Frontier 7 (Young 1, Miner 1, Conneywerdy 3, Horinek 1, Sigwing 1). Total fouls: Boynton 19, Frontier 33. Fouled out: Titsworth

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