CLASS 5A AREA TOURNAMENT
Memorial Chargers (24-3) vs. Edison Eagles (16-11)
TIME: 6:00 PM 
LOCATION: Jenks High School
BROADCAST: T-Town Sports (Grant Merrill, Dean Green)

TULSA – In less than two decades, Creed Flowers has gone from being a player on the floor of the Edison High School arena, to leading his alma mater as head coach. Regardless, he says its’ a special feeling taking his team to the post season as they hit the floor tonight at Jenks High School to take on arch rival Memorial.

Flowers, who played under former Coach Michael Parish, was hired away from Oklahoma City’s Northwest Classen to take the job a year ago. He’s the third coach in just as many years, after Parish departed the Eagles program in 2023 for East Central, and his successor Marco Harris left after a year to take a job as an assistant under well known college coach Cuonzo Martin at NCAA Division 1 program Missouri State.

Edison comes into the area tournament with a 16-11 record, one that reflects some highs and lows. One of the more stressful points in the season came as the team dealt with a five game losing streak in late December and early January. One of the peaks of the season has been the eight game winning streak they are currently riding. Their last loss came to tonight’s opponent, as Memorial had the upper hand in a 59-47 victory back on January 28th.

Since then, Edison has become a different team, which Flowers credits with a number of adjustments.

“The buy in and the attention to detail and really hanging our hats on the defensive end because it was kind of coming and going and matching physicality and getting our, you know, our effort and our energy up and the little things,” Flowers said Wednesday. “And I’ve been thoroughly impressed with how well we’ve been defending, as you know, when we’ve been on that stretch because we’ve really been hanging our hats on that in and it’s been paying off. “

The Eagles tout a powerful starting lineup with names like Maurice Jackson, Quan Young, Jett Crawford, Donald Jackson, and Sheldon Thomason. In the regional championship win over Bishop Kelley, Jackson put on a double digit performance leading the way with 17 points. He would become the only player in double digits that night, which Flowers says he has taught his team to expect, as the single digit performances do add up.

“The message that I always preach heading into the season, I’m like, none of you guys are going to average 20 for me, but all of you will average somewhere between probably eight to 12 points and you’ll win,” Flowers said. “So just trying to get them to buy into that, especially with the social media age and everything that we and everybody wants to have the glitz and glamour.”

As Flowers gets ready to take his team deeper into the postseason, he does so with a certain level of admiration from his opposing coach. Memorial’s Bobby Allison recalls that during his time as an assistant for the Muskogee Roughers, that Flowers was making waves in Oklahoma high school basketball, sparking a career that he has watched ever since.

“He was a gym rat. He was a man-made basketball player. He put in the work and you know he’s about the work and you can tell that he’s that as a coach, which made him a no-brainer when that Edison job opened up last year to get him back home,” Allison said Wednesday. “I remember him as a player. He knew his role and he played tough and he had big games. I remember hearing about him maybe hitting five or six threes to you know bust open Memorial one time when they got when they got us pretty good. Creed is definitely somebody I’ve got a lot of respect for as a player and now what he’s doing as a coach.”

The Eagles and Chargers tip off at 6:00 PM at Jenks High School, as the winner advances to the state tournament at Jim Norick Arena in Oklahoma City on Monday, and the loser will play Friday against the winner of Collinsville and Will Rogers.