MaxPreps Oklahoma Team of the Week: Haworth boys basketball

At this time of year, a loss isn’t such a bad thing. It’s humbling. Can get teams refocused.

That certainly seems to be the case for the Lions of Haworth, who responded to a disappointing 52-48 loss to Broken Bow, with two resounding wins last week.

For their comeback performance, the Lions are the MaxPreps Oklahoma Team of the Week, presented by the Oklahoma National Guard.

"The loss against Broken Bow really showed us a lot of things that we needed to work on," said head coach Burtchal Griffin. "We needed to do a better job rebounding and we needed to get better on transition defense. In that game we gave up 20 points in transition and we can't give up those easy baskets. In practice afterwards we also worked on our out-of-bounds defensive plays. We realized that everybody has to play hard every night and we needed to focus more on our defense."

Haworth (22-3) last week defeated Valliant 72-33 before winning at Hugo, 65-48.

Against Valliant, the Lions jumped to leads of 24-7 and 51-18 after the first two quarters. Coach Griffin's son, senior Junior Griffin, led four players in double figures with 17 points, followed by sophomore Jerry Threadgill Jr. with 15, Oscar Rivera 13 and junior James Pollard with 10.

Haworth shot a sizzling 60 percent from the field (25 of 42) and recorded 24 steals and 21 assists.

At Hugo, Haworth outscored the home team 22-8 in the fourth quarter to win going away.

Griffin, a 6-foot-2 shooting guard, had 27 points on 11 of 15 from the floor, including three 3-pointers. Senior Rivera had 15 points and Theadgill added 10.

"He can do a little bit of everything," coach Griffin said of his son. "He is willing to play where ever we need him to play. He can play the guard position or be a power forward. He's an all-around player."

The Lions, under fifth-year coach Griffin, have won at least 18 games in each of his seasons, including a 28-7 record last year.

Griffin has gone 18-4, 19-8, 22-5 and 28-7 before this season.

Junior Griffin leads the team with a 14.3 points per game average, followed by Hayden Grimes (12.9) and Rivera (11.3).

"We want to win the state championship," said coach Griffin. "We also want them to be excellent young men in the classroom. It would mean a lot to me to have them excel in high school and go to college to become successful young men in whatever field they choose to work in."

MaxPreps editorial assistant Kirstin Beal contributed to this report.

Do you know a team that deserves consideration for Oklahoma Team of the Week? Email us with your nominations at OKteamoftheweek@maxpreps.com.