Bulldogs survive, advance against Lawton High

A late fourth quarter rally by the Lawton Wolverines was not enough to stop the Edmond Memorial Bulldogs from advancing out of the semifinals of the 2019 Edmond Open Championship Tournament Friday night at Edmond Santa Fe Gymnasium. “We have to do a better job of putting some distance there when we have the opportunity to put some distance on the score board,” said Edmond Memorial head coach Shane Cowherd. “And some of that is just maturity and learning how to play in some different roles and some different settings. But overall we had a few hiccups there in that late third-early fourth quarter but then I liked the way that we closed.” The Bulldogs had a 12-point fourth quarter lead but that was erased as the Wolverines came charging back led by Sep Reece who scored eight consecutive points. Lawton cut the lead all the way to four with just under four minutes to play but Memorial scored on their final six possessions to finish the game 58-45. “Lawton is a very understated talented team,” Cowherd said. “A lot of people really didn’t know about them coming in but they’re long, they’re athletic. I was really pleased with how we defended them tonight… We shut down their leading scorer and a lot of that was attributed to JV Seat and what he did defensively." The Bulldogs’ Seat finished with 20 points, while also holding the Wolverines season-leading scorer to six points on the night. “JV [Seat] owned both ends of the floor tonight,” Cowherd said. “And that was something that was huge, we’ve been preaching that for awhile and sometimes we forget he’s only a sophomore. He’s a pretty special one.” Along with Seat’s performance Junior guard Sean Pedulla finished the game leading all scorers with 21 points. “Those are our two guys, inside-outside and can score in a variety of ways,” Cowherd said. “Obviously we need them to be able to eat like that.” With the win, the Bulldogs advance to the Edmond Open Championship game tomorrow at 5 p.m. to battle Edmond North. Cowherd said he wants to see the Bulldogs be a better version of themselves tomorrow. “That’s the way it is, we’ve been in these games a lot. Our guys are used to being in championship moments over the years and one of the things that they realize, you get into one of these moments, you got to be more sound defensively, you got to be more simple offensively,” he said. “You don’t have to try to do things that you can’t do or shouldn’t do or think that maybe you can do, just take care of your business one possession at a time and our guys are pretty good at that.”

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Edmond Memorial High School Athletics

BULLDOGS SURVIVE, ADVANCE AGAINST LAWTON HIGH

JAMES JACKSON

Edmond Sun | 12/7/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Memorial Athletics