Recap: Madill Winter Classic
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I headed down to Madill this weekend to check out some really good basketball teams and I came away really impressed with the talent out in southern Oklahoma. The Purcell Dragons (4-0) walked away Tournament Champions with a 61-37 win…
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Continue ReadingI headed down to Madill this weekend to check out some really good basketball teams and I came away really impressed with the talent out in southern Oklahoma. The Purcell Dragons (4-0) walked away Tournament Champions with a 61-37 win over hosts Madill (4-1) who picked up their first loss of the young season. Here’s a look at the match-ups that I watched on Saturday and the standout players that caught my eye. We’ll start with the consolation side of the bracket and work our way to the championship game.
Boswell (0-9) vs. Dickson (2-4)
Dickson survived a big third quarter run from the Scorpions and ended up winning this one by a final of 44-24. The Comets came out on fire, with a 19-0 first quarter and pretty much never looked back.
Emma Gore
Emma Gore
Emma is a very small point guard, but she’s a freshman, so there’s potentially some room for growth. She was absolutely everywhere during this game and was the no doubt facilitator of the offense while out on the floor. Gore was one of several players that I identified as someone who could really benefit from joining a travel team in order to hone her skills. Her handles are already phenomenal and it’s clear that she has really been working on her game for a while now.
Cayman Pittman
Cayman Pittman
Cayman is a college prospect and, though I didn’t get a chance to talk to her, I hope that she has been contacted by some NAIA or JuCo level coaches. She is a very mature player who is tough and battles hard. She lets the game come to her and is a really, really good shooter with a very quick release. In the game I saw she had 20 with five three-pointers. In the earlier games in the tourney, she scored 10 and six. Pittman needs to be on your radar, coaches.
Amelia Imitochey
Amelia Imitochey
Amelia is a legit 6’2″ and showed very good hands inside for receiving passes. She is also a willing passer out of the lane who did a good job of hitting the open player when faced with the inevitable double and triple team. Coaches and scouts would definitely like to see her use her size and strength more down low to exert her will, but with her frame, a college coach has a lot to dream on. She is definitely a prospect worth taking a look at.
Laney Barbee
Laney Barbee
Another player who could most definitely benefit from the chance to play some grassroots ball, Laney showed some flashes of being a really talented player at a very young age. Though she let her emotions get the best of her for a lot of the game, that too will come with age, maturity, and experience. She is a tough defender who showed very good handles and the ability to shoot it when given even the slightest amount of space. I really hope she finds a team and is able to work on her game outside of school ball.
Chloe Pardue
Chloe Pardue
If you know me, you know I’m not much of a talker. But, sometimes a player is so close to being a legit prospect, that I have to go talk to them or mom and dad or in Chloe’s case, all three. She had 16 in the game against Dickson and led the attempted third quarter comeback with her three point shooting, hitting four in a row. More than that, she was a vocal leader on a team that needed leadership, despite being a sophomore. She also battled hard for every rebound, loose ball, and made life miserable for opposing ballhandlers. Another player who will benefit from basketball training outside of school, I hope that she and her parents will pursue AAU basketball somewhere.
Rilee Ribera
Rilee Ribera
Riley was held scoreless in the game that I watched, but that doesn’t mean anything to any scout worth their salt. It was clear to see that she is a confident player with the ball in her hands and can score in a lot of different ways. In this particular game, the shots just weren’t falling. It was also a very physical game and she was getting roughed up to the point of never really being able to get into a groove. Earlier in the tourney she had totals of nine and 14 against even better competition. She is a tough guard who went hard all game long, especially on the defensive side.
Sulphur (2-4) vs. Ardmore (2-4)
In the second game of the morning session, Ardmore took home the Consolation Bracket Championship with a 58-30 win over the Bulldogs. Both teams had some really, really good players and this game was a very high scoring affair with some tremendous shooters involved.
Kierra was a big-time problem for the Tigers inside. She was an absolute And-1 machine, not just because she’s big and strong and her opponents have no idea what to do with her, but because she uses her body really well. She gets position and makes defenders have to foul her. She puts them in bad positions. She is a tough rebounder who owns the boards when she is in the game and was a huge part of Ardmore’s win. For the tournament she had games of eight, 13, and 15.
It’s so nice to go to these tournaments and “discover” players like Josie just in time to add them to the rankings. No matter how many coaches I talk to for input, there’s no way they all can remember everyone. Josie was a revelation. A long, tall guard with supreme confidence, she was the boss on the court for the Tigers. Incredibly smart, she moves very well off the ball and can play either guard spot with ease. She can score from all three levels, is a dedicated defender, and soon will be a 2026 ranked player in the state of Oklahoma.
Destinee McGee
Destinee McGee
Destinee stood out from the outset due to her tremendous athleticism. She is unbelievably bouncy and isn’t afraid to use her athletic skill. She crashes the boards, follows her shot, does all of the little things. She goes hard, but in a controlled manner. She’s got incredible handles and is quick, yet fluid. Destinee averaged double-digits for the weekend and I have to imagine that she’ll do the same for the entire season with her mix of shooting and dribble-drive ability. Keep an eye on Destinee McGee!
Rasey Runyan
Rasey Runyan
Rasey is very long and more importantly, very strong. She is not going to get pushed around by anyone. She is dedicated to defense and more importantly, she can guard all five positions. She worked hard in the paint to guard some really tough bigs for Ardmore and did a good job. She also scored in the paint against the same. She easily transitioned to guarding even the speediest of points when needed and was never caught flat footed. Rasey had nine points in the game that I watched, including a big early three-pointer.
Mabry Jones
Mabry Jones
Jones showed a really good, left-handed shooting stroke and had seven points in the game against Ardmore. In my notebook I wrote “hustler” by her name and by the time I was done taking notes, that word had several exclamations by it as she just kept making hustle play after hustle play. She showed a quick release on her one three-pointer to open the game. It was clear to see that Mabry is a leader for this team and her size and heart definitely make her a prospect worth taking a look at.
Courtney Keith
Courtney Keith
I hate that I, with my limited photography skills, was not able to get one single, not blurry, photo of Courtney to add to this profile. She really deserves it. If for no other reason than for her Dikembe Mutombo-esque shot blocking prowess that had the whole gym ohhing and ahhing. I mean, when she blocks a shot, which she does a lot… it stays blocked. The sound resonates all over the gym. Better than that, she just moves along as if nothing happened. Like it’s her job to own the paint. I mean, after all, it is, isn’t it?
Durant (2-3) vs. Caddo (4-2)
The battle for third place was the closest game of the day and in the end, the Lions from Durant walked away with a four point win over the No. 2-ranked team in Class A, 37-33. Both teams played extremely hard and this was a very fun game to watch.
It was great to see Maya ply her trade again. A frequent performer on the PGH Circuit, Maya is 100% a college prospect and if the offers on her Twitter are the extent of it, she is being woefully underrecruited in my opinion. She is a patient player with the ball in her hand who has clearly played a lot of basketball and is at the point where things are slowing down for her. She reads things very well and does a wonderful job of taking what is given. She can shoot the three, showed off a really good floater, and some outstanding handles. On the defensive end, she is a tough defender and is strong enough to battle down low where she blocked a few shots… emphatically.
Iyana Wilson
Iyana Wilson
Another player that I had to seek out after seeing them play, I was glad to hear from mom that Iyana is playing with a really good grassroots squad. It all made sense once they said she’s been with Texas Platinum. The maturity. The eyes up the court. The calmness under pressure. The game has slowed down for Iyana and she is still so very young. I’m really glad that she gets this season with someone like Maya Dodson Maya Dodson 5’7″ | CG Durant | 2024 State OK and I hope she takes the opportunity to learn as much as possible from her about dedication on the defensive end and the threat of being a scorer. She’s got the true point guard stuff down, now it’s time to really strike fear into her opponents with her ability to slice and dice the defense and finish consistently in traffic. Her speed and handles are a tremendous asset and she is going to be a big-time prospect assuming that she continues to develop.
Sydney Grover
Sydney Grover
Sydney already had my attention as a player who had worked really hard all game long on the defensive end. She showed great lateral movement to stay in front of her opponent and was doing a great job of disrupting what it was that the Bruins were trying to do offensively. Then she started hitting shots. Then late in the game she hit probably the most clutch shot of the game for her team. Looking back at the scorebook from previous games, I can see that the 11 she had in this one was her biggest offensive output of the tournament. There’s something to be said about doing it at the right time and Sydney most definitely did.
Kadey McKay
Kadey McKay
Before she heads off to join Coach Patty Gasso and her incredible softball squad at OU, we get to enjoy Kadey’s basketball ability for one more season where she is most likely a D-II quality prospect. Alas, basketball is gonna lose this one. McKay has a really quick stroke and will let it fly if given even an inch of space. As is to be expected, she plays the game like a softball player with no quarter given to friend or foe. She sells out for every loose ball and wants to win every single individual battle out there on the court.
Jaycie Nichols
Jaycie Nichols
Speaking of basketball players who are going to be playing softball at pretty good schools, Jaycie is a junior who has already committed to play for the Texas Longhorns following her graduation after next season. In the meantime, we have two more basketball season to watch a player who is most likely also a Division-II caliber player. She is tough, of course, and makes some really hard finishes in the paint look easy. She can stand up to the beating in the paint. She also plays lockdown defense and came up with more than one 5-second call against some very good ballhandlers.
Rylan Peevyhouse
Rylan Peevyhouse
From what I’ve gathered, Caddo is pretty good at softball. I’ve also gathered that the basketball team is really just the softball team wearing different uniforms. Oddly enough, they’re also really good at that, too. I don’t know what Rylan’s plans are after high school, but if she’s interested in basketball, there may be a place for her at the next level. She is explosively quick and gets downhill to the rim in a hurry. She finishes through contact and (of course) is unafraid of the contact in the paint. Just like the rest of her softball/basketball team, she is a proven winner and college coaches could do much worse than adding a hard-nosed player who knows how to do the little things to win.
Madill (4-1) vs. Purcell (4-0)
The championship game of the tournament featured two previously unbeaten teams and someone was sure to go home disappointed. However, I didn’t know until just before arriving in Madill that one team would also be entering the game somewhat defeated with Madill star E’Niyah Holmes E’Niyah Holmes 6'0" | SF Madill | 2026 State OK (2026) getting injured the night before and not being able to suit up. It seems to have taken a toll on the entire team as Purcell ran away with this one, 61-37. That’s not to take anything away from the Dragons who often had five college players on the court during this one and should be playing in the State Tournament come the end of the season.
Kenna followed up her MVP of the Madill Winter Classic performance from last season with… well, another MVP of the Madill Winter Classic. This time as a junior. She’s HER, y’all. Esparza had 19 in the championship with three three-pointers. More than that, she facilitated the Dragons offense and was instrumental in every part of her team’s offense. She is a confident ball-handler who never gets rattled. She can be counted on to protect the ball and does not ever make life easy on the other team, offensively and especially not defensively. Kenna holds an offer from Barclay College, but mostly definitely deserves more, including Division-II interest.
Before the game, Jenna jokingly asked me to write something good about her. I told her to give me a reason to. It didn’t even take one quarter of her stellar defense to know that I was gonna be writing about her once again. Make a lazy pass near the top of the arc with Jenna Avery Jenna Avery 5’4″ | PG Purcell | 2024 State OK around at your own peril. She will have it in her hands and be on the way to finish at the other end before you even know what happened. It happened over and over and over. It always does when I see her play. Defense to offense, in the blink of an eye. Numerous schools at the next level have taken notice and if you don’t, you’re going to regret it when she’s doing it to your team next year.
Hadleigh has all of the skills to go along with her tall, long frame and is a big-time prospect. She can play a little out of control at times, but that’s ok. It’s like when I was a pitcher in high school, sometimes you gotta let the batter know that even you don’t always know where it’s going. If Hadleigh comes running into the lane, the defender needs to make a life decision in the blink of an eye. Eventually, once they get distracted by that decision-making, she’ll just stop and pop. She can score in so many ways and is really good at using her superior length. Harp is a major prospect and it was good to see her perform on the big stage on Satruday.
Arlette Andrade
Arlette Andrade
I travel around the state as much as possible for just this reason. The chance to see a player like Arlette that I may not have otherwise had a chance to see. I definitely wouldn’t have had the chance to see her before the first freshman rankings come out in a month or so due to her lack of social media. Andrade is a big-time prospect. Not just in skill, but in size. She is a strong, powerfully built point guard and as she learns to use that size and power to exert her will on the opposition, she is going to be a problem. I would love to see Andrade on a strong grassroots squad with good trainers. The sky really is the limit for this young athlete.
Allyson Knight
Allyson Knight
Allyson may not play basketball at the next level, I don’t know. But, on Saturday night when her team was down emotionally with their star player injured, she stepped up and played some big-time defense and hit clutch shots. For that reason, she deserves to be highlighted here. She is a smart defender who did a phenomenal job of reading the offense and playing the passing lanes. She worked hard the entire game and when it seemed that maybe some of her teammates were backing off a little with the game getting out of hand, there was no quit in Allyson. She has a great jump shot and made some big time shots, both contested and uncontested.
Luciana Douglass
Luciana Douglass
Luciana is another player who deserves to be recognized because of her outstanding work in tough circumstances. She looks to be a pretty good prospect, also. She is tall and strong and did a good job of battling on the boards and grabbing a lot of rebounds, especially on the offensive end. She had a 14-point game in the one that I watched and showed off a long and mid range jump shot. She got plenty of second chance points under the rim by not being afraid to bang. She could definitely benefit from some work on her ball handling, but even at the level she is at currently, Luciana is a college prospect.