BETHANY — In the first half of Saturday’s (Feb. 22) Class 4A District playoff game, Bethany coach Brett Cannon turned to his bench and shouted “wake up!”

The 12th-ranked Bronchos (15-7) struggled early against the Pirates (5-13) and 6-foot-7 freshman Brian Hopgood, Jr.

“It’s human nature. Everyone fights it,” Cannon said. “We just weren’t ready to go. We thought it everybody’s just gonna roll over for us and that’s not the case.”

Bethany widened the lead in the second and third quarters in the win.

“We did some good things in the second half and looked like what we should look like.”

With 5:24 left in the fourth quarter, senior Aiden Todd snagged a steal at half court and went to the bucket. With the layup, Todd broke the career scoring record at Bethany.

In his career, Todd has scored 1,325 points which beat Tyler Martin’s previous record of 1,322 points set in 2002.

Todd led the Bronchos with 23 points in the contest.

Cannon recalled opening up the Bethany gym for Todd to practice early in the morning and on weekends.

“He’s giving everything to this program. He’s putting more work than anybody else and a lot of people don’t see that,” Cannon said. “He just really loves basketball.”

Fellow senior Wyatt Geissler added 10 points with two 3-pointers.

Junior Griffin Tarrant scored six of his nine points in the second half.

Cannon praised senior Jackie Payne, who also scored nine points.

“Jackie was great, defensively in the second half,” Cannon said.

Brian Hopgood, Jr., the son of Bristow’s coach Brian Hopgood, Sr., scored a game-high 24 points, including 10 points in the first quarter. He tried to keep the Purple Pirates in the game before fouling out in the fourth quarter.

UP NEXT

The Bronchos move on to Regional C in Area 3 Thursday (Feb. 27). Bethany will play Tecumseh (11-15) at home. TIpoff is at 6 p.m.

The unranked Savages beat 4A 18th-ranked Eufaula, 69-67, on Thursday.

Cannon hopes to see more focus from his team which will be playing their final game at home with the regional opener.

“Just showing up, talk about our urgency and hunger. I think because we’ve played well recently, maybe we’ve lost some of that hunger and some need to make sure that we haven’t. So, I think that’s the focus.

Cannon said even with a possible state tournament run, his nine seniors would end their careers in the span of three weeks.

“I believe in these guys and they’ll get it done.”

Photographs courtesy of Kristie Escoe of Life in Action Photography.

	1	2	3	4	F
Bristow (5-13)	12	6	10	12	40
Bethany (15-7)	13	13	14	23	63