Memorial 57 Sante Fe 43

Big second half performances from Sean Pedulla and Drew Tennial helped number one Edmond Memorial defeat number three Edmond Santa Fe 57-43 on Tuesday night. The Bulldogs now lead the series 2-1 after winning the last two meetings. “They kind of punched us in the mouth in that first half, and I thought our guys did a really good job of responding in the second half” said Memorial head Coach Shane Cowherd. Santa Fe got going early in the game, jumping out to an 8-2 lead behind a Jaylen O’Conner 3-pointer and five straight points from junior guard Donovan Vickers. The first four points from the Bulldogs came from freshman center JV Seat. The Wolves led by as may as seven in the first quarter, but that was cut to just four after Memorial’s Jake Royal hit a 3 as time expired to make it 14-10. Memorial then made a run in the second quarter, tying the game at 18-18 after Pedulla stole the ball and scored. Pedulla would finish with 15 points in the game, knocking down three 3-pointers on the day. The Bulldogs wouldn’t take the lead yet, however, as Santa Fe’s Ben Smith would score four straight points to make it 22-18 going into half. Memorial came out of halftime on a mission, and they outscored Santa Fe 17-8 in the quarter. After Vickers scored the first bucket of the half, the Bulldogs went on a 15-0 run, starting with a Pedulla 3-pointer. Down 23-24, a Tennial and-1 gave Memorial their first and last lead of the game with four minutes left to go in the third. Pedulla rattled off eight straight points, including back to back 3-pointers, to give the Bulldogs a 33-24 lead. Vickers drew a foul and nailed both free throws to break Memorial’s streak, and O’Conner went up strong as time expired to cut the lead to just 5. Memorial led 35-30 going into the fourth. The fourth quarter went much like the third, with Memorial outscoring Santa Fe 22-13. Tennial had a huge quarter, scoring 11 points, going 5-5 from the free-throw line. Memorial shot 14-16 as a team from the charity stripe, and 9-10 in the fourth. “It’s important for us,” Coach Cowherd said of his teams terrific night at the line. “We try to draw a lot of fouls, so to be able to get there at the line and execute at a high level is obviously a high note” O’Conner had a nice fourth quarter as well, scoring seven points and shooting 5-6 from the free-throw line. He led the way for the Wolves with 16 points, with Vickers following closely behind with 13. Pedulla and Seat each scored 15 for the Bulldogs, and Tennial led all players with 18. Memorial and Santa Fe will get one more shot at each other on February 15th, their last game before the playoffs.

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MEMORIAL 57 SANTE FE 43

DEREK PARKER

Edmond Sun | 2/6/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Gray Siegel