Warriors’ mentality

Aaron West’s good feeling on the bus related to his team’s performance on the court.

The Okarche Warriors are back in the Class A state semifinal after disposing of unranked Texhoma 87-63 early Tuesday morning at State Fair Arena.

Now, for the third year in a row, the Warriors will face Rattan in the state tournament.

Each of the last two seasons, it was in the quarterfinals. Rattan won 75-60 in 2023, but Okarche returned the favor 63-54 last year en route to winning the state championship.

This year’s rubber match was set for 7:30 p.m. Friday at State Fair Arena (after publication of this edition).

Okarche ended last year on an 11-game win streak. Tuesday’s win pushed it to 41 overall as the Warriors are 30-0 and barely tested.

West, the team’s head coach, said he didn’t want his squad to let the Red Devils feel they had a chance to do that on Tuesday.

Okarche jumped to a 12-2 lead and was up 2714 after a quarter.

“I thought our guys came ready to play,” West said. “I could feel the energy leaving Okarche, I felt they warmed up hard and brought a lot of energy early.”

Texhoma is no stranger to a comeback. The Red Devils were down 22 in the third quarter before coming back the previous Saturday to beat Southwest Covenant and punch their ticket to state.

They started the second on a 6-2 run to get their deficit to single digits, but that was as close as it got.

Easton Roby scored five straight for Okarche as part of his monster first half.

The junior had 19 points, but was just one of three Warriors in double figures by the break.

Hunter Mueggenborg had 11 points and Jett Mueggenborg 14.

But that’s not all. Ethan Kirby came off the bench to make three 3-pointers in the latter part of the second quarter.

Roby closed it out with a three-point play for a 55-32 lead.

Okarche started the second half with a 10-2 run and Texhoma never recovered.

The Warriors did their usual with their pressure and tempo, forcing 31 turnovers and scoring 36 points off of them.

But West said he also stressed pounding the offensive glass. Okarche had 25 boards on that end to six for Texhoma.

Jett Mueggenborg had 11 offensive rebounds alone and 15 overall.

The reigning state tournament MVP also happened to score 32 points.

Roby ended his morning with 24 points.

Hunter Mueggenborg scored 17 to go with eight assists.

Kirby finished with nine while Brett Carnott scored two and had 10 rebounds.

It all stemmed from being prepared to play despite it being a 9 a.m. tipoff.

“We just wanted to come poised and make sure we were ready to go with the early start,” West said of his top-ranked team. “I really thought they came out from start to finish and competed well. They played hard and I was extremely proud of their effort.”