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Posted: Mar 05, 2015 4:31 PMUpdated: Mar 06, 2015 8:29 AM

BHS-Midwest City: Area Basketball

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The Bartlesville boys basketball team will face elimination again on Friday night at Will Rodgers High School, when the Bruins take on Midwest City. 

The game with the Bombers marks the first round of the Area Tournament for the Bruins. After Bartlesville's 58-53 overtime loss at Broken Arrow, BHS will face elimination in every game remaining in the playoffs. Bartlesville must win against Midwest City, then win again on Saturday night, against the loser of Owasso-Jenks, in order to make State. 

The loss at Broken Arrow is a tough one for BHS. The Bruins had a solid chance to get within one game of state, but barely came up short. Bartlesville head coach Clent Stewart talks about the loss. 

Despite the loss, Bartlesville played well for the forth game in a row. The Bruins beat Putnam City on Monday night to advance to the Regional championship game on Tuesday. Stewart was particularly impressed with his team's defense. BHS held Broken Arrow under 60 points in overtime, on their own floor. 

Defending was Bartlesville's bread and butter early in the season, after a brief hiatus toward the tail end of the year, Stewart says he hopes the defense is back for good.

Offensively, a strategy to get the ball in the paint has worked. Barron Tanner has come alive in the playoffs. He led all Bruins with 14 points against BA. Stewart says shots down low open up shooting lanes for 3-pointers. Antonio Castillo, Tanner Thompson, Lucas Rutter and Tanner have all made threes so far in the playoffs. 

On paper, Midwest City looks to be similar to Broken Arrow, which may not mean much. The Bombers are 16-9, coming off a 28-point thrashing at home from Union in their regional championship game. For comparisons sake, Bartlesville lost to Union by 23 at home in February, and by eight at the UMAC in December. 

One of the toughest parts of the preparation will be the lack of time between the regional and area tournaments. Regional tournament postponements from snow means  there will only be two days to prep for the Bombers. Stewart talks about that challenge.

Tip off between Bartlesville and Midwest City will be at 8:00, with pregame at 7:45 on KWON 1400 AM, 93.3 FM. 

You can also listen online, here at BartlesvilleRadio.com, or get the BartlesvilleRadio app. Don't forget you can sign up for K1-TXT to get the scores, along with other breaking news from the Bartlesville area. 

You can listen to the entire interview with Clent Stewart on our Coach's Corner Page.


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