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Previewing Kinta-Red Oak state tourney quarterfinal

Class B boys basketball quarterfinal at Southern Nazarene University 2 p.m.

Kinta (24-6, ranked 12th) vs. Red Oak (24-4, ranked second)

Points per game: Kinta: 57.8; Red Oak: 65.8.

Points allowed per game: Kinta: 42.7; Red Oak: 45.2.

Last meeting: Red Oak 73, Kinta 43 (Nov. 6, 2017)

Notes: The dichotomy between these two Rock Island Conference rivals keeps changing. When Red Oak was the vaunted No. 1 team two years ago, the purple and gold beat Kinta 63-40 during the regular season and boys in blue and white came around and controlled the state semifinal showdown. Kinta led Red Oak for three-and-a-half quarters while slowing the game down before Red Oak was able to revitalize its full-court press to get quick baskets. Kinta committed a few turnovers late and Red Oak won 62-58 in what Kinta coach Jim Jenson said was supposed to be the title game.

Both Jenson and Red Oak coach Trey Booth have said the two teams this year are entirely different.

That was evident in November when the two teams faced off and Red Oak had the size advantage. In that game, Kinta kept up with Red Oak in the first half before turnovers at the end of the second quarter and early in the third hurt the boys in blue and white.

"No one's talking about us," Jenson said after the game.

From then to now, Kinta has forced itself into the conversation. Jenson praised the ball-handling of guards George Luna and Cameron and Braden Ray after the Feb. 26 area consolation final win against Timberlake. Notably, Luna was not healthy to play against Red Oak in November.

Josh Lynch has emerged as a standout scorer. He's averaging 14.7 points per game this postseason.

Further, the fact that Kinta is the lowest-ranked team in the tournament may be irrelevant since it beat seventh-ranked Timberlake in the area consolation final on Feb. 26 to get in.

Red Oak is not quite on the perch it was two years ago, but it does have plenty of talent in its lineup. That starts with leading scorer Grayson Nix, who has scored more than 2,000 points in his high-school career and committed to Henderson State College (Ark.) Nix and Jacob Armstrong, a talented three-point shooter, combined for 38 of Red Oak's points in their 39-36 win against Paden in the area final on Feb. 24.

Red Oak enjoys pushing the pace with its full-court press.

Jenson said his team will try to control the pace in the halfcourt.

Pace and shooting will be two factors in this game.

The winner faces the victor between 10th-ranked Leedey (22-7) and fifth-ranked Indiahoma (27-4) in the semifinal on Friday at 9 a.m. in the Jim Norick Arena at the state fairgrounds in Oklahoma City.

Stigler News-Sentinel

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