CLAREMORE —?It was an evening of lows and highs for Claremore high school basketball fans Tuesday night in the home surroundings. The Lady Zebras suffered a 43-35 loss in the opening contest for the negative feelings. Reversing that tide was Claremore’s boys coasting for a 79-49 win.

On the opposite side was Skiatook in a Metro Lakes Conference outing.

Coming off 2-1 showings at separate tournaments this past weekend, both Claremore teams started a countdown toward the Class 5A regionals starting February 23-25. Seven regular season games remain.

Claremore boys 79, Skiatook 49

The 5A No. 4 Zebras, now 15-1, showed no ill effects from losing their first game five days earlier at the Pittsburg, Kan., Tournament. Recovering fast there with back-to-back wins, Claremore continued its dominant conference run in its latest court appearance.

Jeff Oxford led the way with 23 points and Layton Hartloff added 13. Both starters spent more time than usual on the bench. Zebra coach Tommy Nolan used his normal eight to nine player combination through the first three quarters. Holding a 31-point edge to start the final period, he turned things over to reserves.

By rolling past Skiatook, the Zebras are now 7-0 in Metro action. Starting Friday at Coweta, Claremore will face the same seven again. Five of the games will be on the road.

It appeared early the unranked Bulldogs might be tougher than their 6-9 record indicated. The visitors claimed two one-point leads following the opening tip and had a 6-6 tie before the bottom fell out.

An Oxford trey broke the tie. Eric Mitchell managed to put back a rebound for Skiatook and a 9-8 score, but that proved to be the beginning of the end.

Claremore went on a 17-6 run to close the first quarter.

Hartloff, Levi Chasteen, Chance Knaust, Oxford, Gunner Hall, and Jesse Ewton took turns putting the ball in the basket.

Fourteen Zebras saw action as Claremore continued to add to the scoring margin.

The widest gap was 33 points (69-36) in the closing seconds of the third quarter.

Because of the score, Skiatook was also able to substitute more freely. Nine players scored but none claiming more than nine points.
