PHOTO: Edmond Santa Fe’s Ahoneste Walker scored nine points in Friday’s contest with Norman High School. 

Both the Edmond Santa Fe girls and boys teams suffered losses to Norman on Friday night, as the Tigers cruised in the girls game and churned out a win in the boys. 

Norman got on the Wolves early and never let off, jumping out to an early lead behind an 11-point first quarter from Kelbie Washington to cruise to a 59-43 win. Washington scored the Tiger’s first seven points of the game, and finished with 17. 

Santa Fe’s Kaylee Nero attempted to put the Wolves back in the game with an eight-point performance in the second quarter, but Chantae Embry picked up right where Washington left off, scoring 12 points in the second quarter for the Tigers to give them a 31-16 lead at halftime. Nero finished the games as Santa Fe’s leading scorer with 14 points, and Embry finished with 16. The next closest scorer for the Wolves was Ahoneste Walker with nine points.

The Wolves outscored Norman 20-17 in the final quarter, but it wouldn’t be enough. 

Norman knocked off Santa Fe, putting the Wolves back to .500 on the year at 4-4.

“We got careless with the basketball, we had too many turnovers to start,” said Santa Fe head coach Paul Bass. “Basketball is just a game of runs and momentum, and when we started losing momentum we couldn’t get it back.”

The Wolves jumped out to a quick 5-0 after a Colby Onyekuru bump and a Donovan Vickers and-1. Santa Fe extended their lead to 15-7, but the Tigers stormed back, scoring six straight points to cut the lead to 15-12 after the first quarter. Talyn Shettron scored five for Santa Fe in the first quarter, and Trentez Scales scored nine for the Tigers, finishing 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

Norman continued their run into the second quarter, scoring five straight points to finish their 10-0 run. Shettron broke it with back-to-back buckets, and the teams battled to the final second of the quarter when Norman’s Connor Goodson used a euro-step as time expired to tie it at 22-22 at the half.

There were four lead changes in the third quarter as both teams traded blows. Shettron scored seven points, and the Tigers used balanced scoring from four players to outscore the Wolves 11-10 in the quarter to take a one-point lead heading into the final quarter. 

Norman scored just four of their 14 fourth-quarter points on field goals, going 10-for-16 from the free throw line to finish six points ahead of the Wolves. Santa Fe scored nine points in the fourth in the loss. 

Shettron led Santa Fe with 15 points, Onyekuru finished with 10, and Michael Reeves finished with six points on two 3-pointers. Scales finished with 16 points for Norman, making 13 of his 18 free throw attempts. Emmert followed Scales with 11 points. 

“We gotta go find ways to score inside,” boys head coach Troy Lallemand said after the loss. “In games we’ve won this year that’s been our success. It’s put a lot of pressure on our defense because our offense is lagging right now.” 

Next, Santa Fe looks to rebound with a home -game against Moore on Jan. 17 at 7 p.m.
