The Checotah Lady Wildcats had a tough time at the Checotah Crossroads Classic. The Lady Wildcats came up short on Thursday when Keys topped Checotah 38-35. It was a well-played game by the Lady Wildcats who played shot for shot with the Lady Cougars but missed free throws would haunt Checotah.

The Lady Wildcats’ defense opened up and put a lot of pressure led by Ruby and Ruthy Folkner and Nyah Cloud. Checotah outscored Keys 10-7 in the first period but the Lady Cougars came out the second period and began raining down three-point buckets to outscore Checotah 18-4 to take a 25-14 lead into the halftime break.

Aiyana Brewer played tough in the paint and scored four points in the game, totaling 10 points in the third period. Nyah Cloud had a good day on both ends of the court as she led Checotah with 11 points and the play by Sidney Hamilton was courageous. Hamilton played physical and was a force from the perimeter, rebounding while scoring five points.

Keys won the rebound battle and used it to their advantage as they outscored Checotah 21-13 in the second half. To seal the 38-35 win.

On Friday the Lady Wildcats lost a heartbreaker to Fort Gibson JV 47-46. It was a great game to watch. Both teams made shot for shot and were tied 11 all after the first period. The Wildcats game plan of feeding it to Aiyana Brewer who scored a game high 18 points was working. The Wildcats began to take a lead with Hailey Prince and Nyah Cloud scoring in the paint to give Checotah a 26-21 lead going into the halftime break.

Fort Gibson JV star Brenley Moore was hot offensively as she scored 22 points with nine points coming in the second half. Both Folkner girls did a good job defensively with Ruby scoring 5 points and Jazlyn Atkins added 5 points of her own. It was a game that came down to the last minute and it fell in favor of the Tigers as they edged Checotah 47-46. Hailey Prince scored 11 points, Brewer 18 points and Nyah Cloud had six points in the loss.