Putnam City Sneaks Past Mustang to Advance

PCO dominated the third quarter and held off a comeback attempt in the fourth.

Thursday, July 28th 2011, 6:08 pm

By: News On 6

Putnam City Sneaks Past Mustang to Advance

Originally Published: Feb 27, 2011 11:23 AM CDT

Jessica Coody
Oklahoma Sports Mobile Journalist

MUSTANG, Okla. -- Defending state champion Putnam City pulled out a 54-48 win over Mustang Saturday despite playing without head coach A.D. Burtschi.

Burtschi is okay, but missed the Regional Championship due to health complications.

"Before the game we were all really worried about him," Putnam City senior Dominique Raney said. "We were praying, but overall we wanted to get the win for him and make sure he was okay."

The Pirates trailed 19-10 at the end of the first quarter, but were able to battle back at the end of the second quarter and cut the lead 29-26 at halftime.

Putnam City took its first lead of the half 31-30 on a David Bush putback at the 6:15 mark.

Mustang struggled offensively in the third quarter. The Broncos made one of two free throws at the beginning of the third quarter, but did not make a field goal until there was less than a minute left in the quarter. Mustang managed just four points in the quarter and trailed PCO 39-33 heading into the fourth.

David Glidden hit a 3-pointer early in the fourth to cut it to 39-36, and it remained close the rest of the way.

Robert Shaw cut it to 50-48 with 2:02 remaining. The Broncos got the ball back with just under 2 minutes left in the game, but missed a 3-pointer to take the lead and had to foul to stop the clock with 28.3 seconds remaining.

Raney made one of two free throws and left the door open for the Broncos to tie. But Mustang again missed a 3-pointer, and from there the Pirates made their free throws down the stretch to hold on for the win.

It was the third meeting between the two teams this year, with the most recent coming on Feb. 7 when Raney hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift the Pirates to a 52-50 win at Mustang. The teams split in the regular season series, as the Broncos won at Putnam City early in the season.

"The first time they came into our house and beat us," Raney said. "We came here and luckily we hit a big time shot to win it; it feels good to get this win."

The Pirates have struggled at times this season, including a five-game losing streak in January. But in basketball it's all about how you are playing late, and the Pirates are now riding a five-game win streak heading into the Area Championship against Midwest City on Friday.

"I feel like we're playing our best basketball right now, and we're ready," Raney said.

As for Coach Burtschi, Raney says he would have been pretty pleased with the Pirates performance, but not satisfied.

"Yeah, he would have done a lot of yelling," Raney said smiling, "but everything's good and we just hope he gets well."