On opening night of the postseason, the Norman High boys make program history
Writer’s note: Friday night began a little more work for my old newspaper than typical. If you don’t know, this week marks the opening week of the high school basketball playoffs for the state’s bigger schools and I was at Norman High, where of course the Tigers won easily, as they were supposed to, but wound up making program history along the way. And, truth be told, nobody might have known about that history if not for the great Stephen Jones, who I’ve written about in the past both here and here. So, not the usual fare for Oklahoma Columnist, but if you believe there’s something old-timey and cool about high school basketball, with history made on top, perhaps you’ll enjoy this.
NORMAN — Let’s start here.
The great Stephen Jones, once a team manager, forever a fan and historian, and on the NHS Wall of Fame to boot, claims it so it must be true.
Never before had a Norman High boys team eclipsed the century mark.
The nearest one had come was the 98 scored against Edmond Memorial in 2006, the Tigers coached at the time by the late Wes Clark, who died only Sunday after watching most of the regular season alongside Jones, just a few feet off the baseline, along the NHS Gym’s south wall.
“Losing coach Clark, the guys wanted to honor him by giving a full day’s effort and then some,” Tiger coach Cory Cole said.
They did it.
They even did it, knocking off Capitol Hill on the first night of the Class 6A regional playoffs 110-32, exactly the right way a team’s supposed to take on an overmatched opponent on the first night of the playoffs.
A regional host for the second straight season, the Tigers can move one victory from the Class 6A state tournament beginning at 7:30 tonight, when they tip off against Westmoore, a 69-55 victor over Piedmont in Thursday’s late game at the NHS Gym.
Cole played every player on his roster for at least a quarter. Twelve of those 14 players grabbed at least one rebound and every single one of them scored, a 3-pointer from Chris Murcia, the game’s final basket with 30 seconds remaining, making it so.
In a game decided by 78 points, NHS’ Tony Jefferson, playing 15:39, the most of any Tiger, led NHS’ plus-minus parade at 42. Carl Gould and Murcia, each playing about 8 minutes, though last in the parade line, still came through with plus-minus figures of 20 each.
“Stick to our principles, play hard, play the right way,” Cole said.
Nobody knew the final score would become what it was, though the Tigers’ second, third and fourth field goals all being dunks, one from Trashaun Combs-Pierce and two from B.J.. Randle, indicated it would at least be easy.
No Tiger scored more than Combs-Pierce’s 15 points, yet five other Tigers also finished in double figures: Beau Billingsley 13, Isaiah Amos 12, Hunter Miller 12, Cooper Collins 11, Randle 10.
Billingsley, NHS’ point guard, thought the Tigers had the right approach.
“Regardless of who you’re playing,” he said, “you’ve got to go out there and play against yourself.”
Anthony Simpson led Capitol Hill with nine points.
Like many history making contests, it was a numbers feast.
Matthew Kalinksi dished five of NHS’ 24 assists, while both he and Gould accounted for five each of NHS’ 33 steals, which accounted for all but six of Capitol Hill’s 39 turnovers.
NHS scored 52 points in the first half and an amazing 35 in the third quarter. It even scored 21 the first 3:45 of the third quarter.
The Tigers scored 27 second-chance points and 48, compared to Capitol Hill’s two, on the break.
“We say we want to have a good time,” Billingsley said. “But building habits and winning, that’s a good time.”
NHS moved to 19-4, pushing its winning streak, which began Jan. 5, to 14 games.
Capitol Hill fell to 3-18.
In a losers’ bracket contest, Piedmont and Capitol Hill open tonight’s action at 6 p.m.
Clay: we left Norman to return to California in 2014. I wasn't aware of that. I just remember coaching baseball and wrestling against Capital Hill when I was at Douglass, and they were a tiny school back in the 80s. I hope you remember my grandson Paul Reed. He lettered at NN as the only freshman on the 2011 undefeated in conference squad, finishing with a 6-2 pitching record and hitting a dinger in his first varsity AB. He transferred to NHS his sophomore year after enduring the terrible treatment dished out by Dolesi and approved by Aylor during the summer league. (After pitching seven innings in a Wednesday game, they told him he was to start the second game of a DH on the Thursday. In between the first and second games, Dolesi decided that running around the outfield fence for two miles was the smart thing to do to his players. The weather that afternoon and evening was 107 degrees with 87% humidity. It was miserable.) I remember the games he won over NN the next years with them being broadcast on local radio and then you writing about them in the Transcript. Paul graduated in 2014 as valedictorian at NHS. He graduated from Pomona College in 2018 (rated as the number one college in the nation his freshman year, over all the Ivy League giants). In a matter of just five years, Paul is now a manager at Brighterion, the AI division of MasterCard, and lives in San Francisco.
PS: In addition to coaching at several high schools in Oklahoma and in California, I coached the 1981 Norman American Legion AA team to a 55-10 season. State champions and runner-up in the national tournament. We ran off two streaks of 20 and 16 consecutive wins that memorable summer: Bruce Morain, Mark Nelms, Butch Roberts, Jeff Parks and a slew of other talented Norman boys.
C'mon, Clay. Capital Hill had no business being in the same division as NHS.