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Cement’s Michael Evans, right, drives around the defense in a game last week.

Wilson has No. 6 Sterling ready for playoffs

If anyone's qualified to break down the differences between the classifications of girls basketball, it's Rick Wilson.

Sterling's second-year head coach, if you didn't know, has amassed more than 750 career wins in 35 years as a head coach. His seven state championships are the second-most in state high school basketball history. Those titles have spanned five different schools  Elk City, Seiling, Carl Albert, Hydro-Eakly and Weatherford  and all classes except Class B and 6A.

But according to Wilson, whose sixth-ranked Sterling team (21-3) hits the postseason this week with district tournaments, the difference in small and large school girls basketball is very little.

"A really good Class B team could beat a Class 6A team," Wilson said. "I had incredible depth at Carl Albert. Other than that, there's really no difference at all."

Sterling this year may not have Carl Albert-like bench scoring, but it returned enough talent from last year's team  one that gave eventual state champion Okarche its closest game in the state tournament  to be considered a 2014 contender, which could deliver Wilson his eighth state title.

Before pulling out a 57-47 win to advance in 2013, Okarche led Sterling by just five at halftime last year. The Warriors have since moved to Class B, but leave behind a cluster of title contenders in Class A.

The Lawton Constitution

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