February 14, 2026 Issue, Page 3 of 13

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SPORTS The Elk City News Molly Jacks Jaylee Little Brynlee Newcomb Avery Wornke Adeline Haven Ava Weeks & Avery Wornke Hayven Albright Avery Shaw SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2026 • 3 Ava Weeks Adelyn Truit College & High School Basketball By Alex Alvarez Road to The Final Four continues: With 7-8 games left in the regular season, most of the tops teams are pretty much decided in each conference, with the strongest being the: Big-12 (Average Seed 5.2, with two most probable #1 seeds in Arizona and Iowa State), Big10 (5.3, with two other probable #1 seeds, Michigan and Purdue), SEC (5.3, but not as strong as last year, with Vanderbilt at the top); ACC (5.9 with Duke the obvious contender for a national title but can’t discount North Carolina who is showing great improvement) and Big East (6.8, with UConn better than expected) Here are the Top 10 in Men and Women, where Oklahoma Sooners continue in the top 10! MEN: Arizona 23-0, Michigan 22-1, Houston 21-2, Duke 21-2, Iowa State 21-2, UConn 22-2, Nebraska 21-2, Illinois 20-4, Kansas 18-5 and Michigan State 20-4.. WOMEN: UConn 25-0, UCLA 23-1, South Carolina 24-2, Texas 22-2, Vanderbilt 22-2, LSU 22-3, Michigan 20-4, Ohio State 22-3, Louisville 22-4 and Oklahoma 175. The teams, as by NCAA rules, will play a maximum of 32 regular season games, and after their conference championships, the top 68 teams in both, men and women, will be chosen, with 62 teams seeded and four teams having a shootout for the last two spots in March Madness. OKLAHOMA COLLEGES BASKETBALL Oklahoma Sooners. Men. Southeastern Conference Coach: Porter Moser Record: 12-12 overall, 2-9 in SEC Conference. Last three games: 1-2. Win vs Vanderbilt 92-91., Losses vs Kentucky 78-94 and Texas 69-79 Coming up: Georgia (Feb-14), Tennessee (Feb-17), Texas A&M (Feb-21) Conference Position: Last. Conference Leader: Florisa Gators 17-6 #10 Oklahoma Sooners. Women. Southeastern Conference Coach: Jennie Baranczyk Record: 17-6, Conference 5-5 Last three games: 1-2. Win vs Texas A&M 85-58, Losses vs Texas 70-78 and Vanderbilt 86-102 Coming up: Florida (Feb-12), Alabama (Feb-15), Georgia (Feb19) Conference Position: 9th Conference Leader: South Carolina Gamecocks 24-2 Oklahoma State Cowboys. Big12 Conference Coach: Steve Lutz Record: 16-7 overall, 4-6 Conference Last three games: 2-1. Wins vs Utah 81-69, BYU 99-92 and Loss vs Arizona47-84 Coming up: Arizona ST (Feb10), TCU (Feb-14), Kansas (Feb18) Conference Position: 10th Conference Leader: Arizona Wildcats 23-1 Oklahoma State Cowgirls. Women. Big-12 Conference Coach: Jacie Hoyt Record: 19-6 overall, Conference 8-4 Last three games: 2-1, Wins vs Arizona 88-69, UCF 81-58, Loss vs Arizona St 79-84 Coming up: Kansas St (Feb-10), Texas Tech (Feb-14), Utah (Feb-16) Conference Position: 5th Conference Leader: Baylor Bears 21-4 ELK CITY BASKETBALL – IDLE NEW YEAR’S WEEK Elk City Boys broke their losing streak of 17 by winning versus Elgin and then extended their winning streak to two games by beating Clinton. #11 CANUTE CLASS A BOYS: Coach Brock Steffes. Record 13-9 Last three games: 1-2. Win vs B urns Flat/Dill City 58-46, Losses vs Hammon 79-84, Pawhuska 55-83 #2 CANUTE CLASS A GIRLS: Coach Tatum Ridling. Record 21-1 Last Three 3-0: Wins vs Pawhuska 64-38, Hammon 67-22, Burn Flat/Dill City 88/7 MERRITT CLASS 2-A BOYS Coach Tyler Snowden. Record 8-13 Last Three: 1-2. Losses vs Well- ston 43-53, Frederick 37-55. Win vs Arapaho/Butler 44-34 #4 MERRITT CLASS 2-A GIRLS Coach Jeff Daugherty. Record 18-3 Last Three: 3-0. Wins Wellston 65-35, Frederick 64-17, Arapaho/ Butler 60-34 ELK CITY CLASS 4-A BOYS Coach Tyler Foale. Record 2-17 Last Three: 2-1. Loss vs Woodward 44-76, wins vs Elgin 46-45, Clinton 47-45 #20 ELK CITY CLASS 4-A GIRLS Coach Mason Jones. Record 13-7 Last 3: 2-1. Wins vs Woodward 59-34, Clinton 61-35. Loss vs Elgin 44-64 Sources: ESPN, MSN Sports, OSSAA, On-Line media sports. Sports Tidbits By Alex Alvarez NBA Despite the dizzying density of deals this week, not many are likely to have a great impact on the 2026 title race. That’s great news for the championship favorites: the Oklahoma City Thunder! With Jared McCain, who could have been Rookie of the year had he played 23 games, they have added depth for less money! The Thunder still has the best record in both conferences. GOLF: The Waste Management Phoenix Open often gets out of hand, and this year was no different. Jack Doherty was ejected and subsequently banned from the 2026 WM Phoenix Open and all future PGA Tour events after paying a spectator to shout during Mackenzie Hughes’ swing! What is going on with our society? Golf is the one game that is supposed to be for gentlemen! Chris Gutterup, who was ignored for the Ryder Cup team, even though he had recently won two tournaments, has won twice this year already and has four victories to his name. My question to the PGA of America, “When are you going to reward winners instead of Captain’s buddies?” Oh, in case you haven’t noticed, WE LOST! Here are the records of the Captain’s pics: Justin Thomas 2-2-0 (last win April 2025), Collin Morikawa ½ point (last win October 2023), Patrick Cantlay 1 ½ points (last win April 2022), Sam Burns 1 point (last win March 2023). Chris Gutterup, 2 wins, including Scottish Open where he beat Rory McIlroy down the stretch. Not selected. TENNIS: The great Serena Williams has been cleared to play in the Tennis Tour by the drug administration of the ATP. Is she really coming back? Maybe Coco could take some les- sons! Novak Djokovic gave a “cryptic” answer to an Australian reporter: “yes, I’ll be back to Australia, perhaps not as a player.” Is he truly contemplating retirement? NFL Las Vegas was right! Seattle was the better team, but I ask: the line of over and under was at 40 ½, and the late touchdown by the Patriots cost thousands of bettors a lot of money. Advice: don’t bet on things you can’t control! The Seahawks’ running back Kenneth Walker won MVP last Sunday. Walker rushed for 135 yards while the Patriots rushed for 79 yards altogether! Was it the difference in the outcome? OTHER Hunter Hess of the USA Skiing team got political and said, “I’m not representing the USA as much as I am representing my family and friends.” Okay Hunter, if that’s the case, just send the money the US Olympic Committee gave you for your trip to Italy and DO NOT WEAR THE RED, WHITE and BLUE! You don’t have to sacrifice yourself! Lindsey Vonn’s dream of getting an Olympic medal this year, came to a crashing halt with another crash within weeks of her crash during the World Cup competitions. No matter what, thank you Lindsey! You gave us so many great moments of inspiration! Breezy Johnson took gold in the Downhill Race. America could have had the 1-2 had Lindsey Vonn not been hurt. Other medals so far in Italy for Americans: Ilia Malining (Gold in team figure skating), Evan Bates & Madison Chock (Gold in pairs figure skating). Sources: ESPN, Wikipedia, Personal Library, MSN Sports, On-Line media. Professional Team Sports By Alex Alvarez SUPER BOWL LX: My opinion as a football fan is that the game was about as boring as watching grass grow, not to mention that the half-time show was not what I would like to have seen. Not my type of music, nor do I think that having a show in Spanish was something that 90% of the fans understood. Now, I admit, some of the thoughts above may have a genesis in that I did not have a “dog in the fight,” I’m more of a “team fan” (yes, Dallas Cowboys) than a football fan, as I don’t understand some of the rules or decisions on some games. I don’t understand why some plays are called “pass interference” when in my view it wasn’t, and why some that I thought were obvious to me, were not called. Anyway, back to the game… It was Seattle vs New England 2.0, and despite all the talk about Seattle being stronger, many of us believed that New England would win as they had better 2025-2026 playoff stats than Seattle this year. But, as I said in a previous post, the game is played on the field and not on paper, and the Seattle Seahawks deserved the win. WHAT A DEFENSE! Wow!! Maye and his offense could not figure out the Seahawks’ defense; they couldn’t adjust anything in order to get in the in-zone. Not even close enough for a field goal for three full quarters as the score was 12-0 after 45 minutes of play. At the time, it gave Patriots’ fans an optimistic view that somehow, Maye and his offense would decipher the way to get in for a touchdown, which they did after being down 19-0 making the score 19-7 with 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter, giving a little hope until a field goal and an interception that led to a touchdown, to make the score 29-7 with less than 5 minutes to go. It would take a miracle to come back from that deficit. The miracle never happened. With 2 ½ minutes to go, New England scored a touchdown and failed on a 2-point conversion to make the game 29-13 and that is the way it ended. By the way, that last touch- down, when the game was already decided, ended up breaking a lot of people’s hearts who had bet on the “under”, but it is what it is! Congratulations to Seattle! NBA: Now that football season is over, we can concentrate on the NBA and NHL while wishing the same results at the end of the NBA season. At least some of those who have cheered on the Thunder since their move to Oklahoma. The big news this week was that there was a big brawl between Naz Reid (Minnesota Timberwolves) Mouhamed Gueye (Atlanta Hawks) on the game that the Timberwolves won to barely get to .600 (33-22) by winning 138-116. What prompted the scuffle isn’t entirely clear just yet, but it happened after Reid tripped over Gabe Vincent. When Reid got up, Gueye exchanged words and then had to be held back from each other as a scuffle ensued and both players tugged on each other’s jersey. In the end, both were ejected from the game with two technical fouls. The NBA Standings are as follows: Eastern: Detroit Pistons 39-13, New York Knicks 34-19, Boston Celtics 34-19, Cleveland Cavaliers 33-21, Toronto Raptors 32-22, Philadelphia 76ers 30-23. Western: Oklahoma City Thunder 41-13, San Antonio Spurs 3616, Denver Nuggets 34-20, Houston Rockets 32-19, Los Angeles Lakers 32-20, Minnesota Timberwolves 33-22. NHL- STANDINGS AS OF LAST MONDAY Eastern Conference: Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes 78-points, Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings 72-points, Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres 70-points. Western Conference: Colorado Avalanche 83-points, Minnesota Wild 78-points, Dallas Stars 77-points, Vegans Golden Knights 68-points, Utah Mamooth and Edmonton Oilers 64-points. Sources: ESPN, MSN Sports, OnLine media sports. Professional Golf By Alex Alvarez PGA TOUR: WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPEN. Chris Gutterup, the American who was not selected for the Ryder Cup team, has won more tournaments than Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns, Justin Thomas and Cameron Young together in the last 12 months. Time for the PGA of American to revise their selection process. Chris shot a closing round of 64 to join Hideki Matsuyama at the top of the leaderboard after 72 holes, then beat the Japanese star in the sudden death playoff by making a birdie on #18, the first hole of the playoff. Previously, Gutterup had birdied the same hole to catch Matsuyama after 72 holes after the former Master champion made bogey in the last hole to fall to 16 under par. Scottie Scheffler, who began the tournament with a 2-over par 73, for his worst round of the year and first over par round in his last 38 rounds, fought back and ended at 15 under par, just one shot shy of a playoff berth with Gutterup and Matsuyama. Scottie, who had won this event twice and was defending champion tied for third at 15 under par with Akshai Bhatia, Si Woo Kim, Micael Thorbjornsen and Nicolai Hojgaard. Next was Jake Knapp with 14 under par. Coming up is the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Feb 12-15 (Defending champion in Rory McIlroy) and the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, which due to the Los Angeles fires was moved to Torey Pines in San Diego last year. The tournament was won by Ludvig Aberg. DP WORLD TOUR: QATAR MASTERS Patrick Reed won his second tournament of the year in the DP World Tour. Reed, who is scheduled to return to the PGA Tour after a three-year absence, has won twice and gotten second place once in his last three starts. Reed finished at 16 under par, and was followed by Calum Hill at 14-under, Johannes Veerman and Jacob Olesen at 13 under par and four players at 12-under par. Previously Reed won the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and tied for first, before losing a playoff at Bahrain Championship. Win his win, Patrick Reed has taken a solid lead in the “Race to Dubai” tournament series and is well ahead of Jayden Schaper by over 400 points, and more than double the points of Andy Sullivan. In fact, reed has more points than 2nd and 3rd place combined. KORN FERRY TOUR: ASTARA GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP James Nicholas finished at 19 under par to with this stop in Bogota, Colombia. He was followed by Norman Xion (17-Under), Carson Young (16-Under), Jackosn Suber, Ian Gilligan, Hunter Eichhorn and Ashton VanHornat 14-under par. It was Nicholas’ first professional win. LPGA TOUR: WAS IDLE LAST WEEK. Coming up: LPGA Honda LPGA Thailand (Feb 19-220) and HSBC Women’s World Championships in Singapore, Singapore on Feb 26-Marh 1. Sources: ESPN, PGA Tour.com, LPGA.com, AP Tennis, Personal Library, MSN Sports, On-Line media.