Allen — Wins apparently haven’t translated into respect for the Allen boys basketball team this season.

Despite a 12-2 record heading into Saturday’s championship game at Coleman’s Sundowner Classic, the Mustangs were sent down one of the toughest playoff roads of any small-school team in Oklahoma when the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association (OSSAA) handed out playoff assignments for Class A and B last week.

 If Allen can win a tougher-than-expected three-team district with 17th-ranked Earlsboro (15-5) and Tupelo at home, the Mustangs will square off with top-ranked Caddo in the first round of their regional tournament. On the other side of the area bracket is Class A’s No. 2 team, unbeaten Stuart.

Veteran coach Greg Mills said Allen’s tough postseason draw is as much a product of geography as it is a snub of his program by the OSSAA.

“This area is loaded,” said Mills, who is in his 15th season at Allen, including 14 as boys basketball coach. “We’re going to have to be playing our best ball from game one. There’s not going to be a night off.

“If you drop into the loser’s bracket, you won’t have an easy game,” he added. “Our district is very important, and if we win it, we’ll probably match up with Caddo. We’re going to play ranked teams all the way through the playoffs.”

Besides their draw, history is something else that’s not on the side of the Mustangs. Allen hasn’t been to a boys state tournament in the Mills era, and Roff (in 2004 and 2006) is the only area school to send a boys squad to the big show in Class A over the past decade.

Mills said the draw is something he can’t control, and he said that even with the challenge facing them, the Mustangs have enough talent to end their school’s state tournament drought.

“(The draw) didn’t bother me,” Mills noted. “We were going to have to play somebody, so I’m just glad we got (the district) at home. I’ve got Caddo sitting on one side of me and Stuart on the other side. With this realignment, it really loaded up this area.

“We’re playing pretty well,” he said. “We finally got to rest up a little bit this week to get our legs back under us. We play three games a week the rest of the year, but we’re sitting about where we want to be right now. I feel like we can play with about anybody, and we’re starting to get more consistent with our outside shooting and heal up a little bit. It’s starting to come together.”

The Mustangs’ leading scorer through 14 games is Lane Mills, a 6-2 sophomore forward who entered the weekend average just over 17 points per game. He is one of the young guns on a roster that has just three seniors (guards Luke Mullicane, Jamie Lassiter and Justin Slater) overall and just one senior starter (Mullicane).

“I really wasn’t expecting this out of (Mills),” Greg Mills said. “He’s come a long way. He’s starting to understand the game, and he can score points in bunches when he gets hot.”

Allen’s quarterback is junior point guard Brady Caldwell, who is also the signal-caller on the Mustang football team.

“Brady is the one who runs the show and gets us where we’re supposed to go,” Mills said of Caldwell, who is averaging 13 points per game despite playing through a nagging knee injury. “He’s kind of the glue — he does everything.”

Sophomore Conner Johnson, a 3-point specialist who Mills said “helps us stretch the defense,” joins Caldwell and Mullicane — a player Mills called one of the surprises on this year’s team — in a backcourt rotation that also includes Lassiter off the bench.

“Luke has really come on and has been a good defender this year,” Mills said.

Grant Rowsey, a 6-2 junior who joins 6-3 Brett Edens in the post for the Mustangs, has also been a pleasant surprise to his coach.

“He has worked hard and improved a lot,” Mills said. “But I think everybody on the team is better than they were last year.”  

Mills — who lost center and leading scorer Taylor Ross and point guard Dylan Jackson to graduation off a squad  that was eliminated by Smithville in three overtimes in the regional final last spring — said the experience of a long playoff run will pay dividends down the road for his young team.

He added, though, that he hasn’t given up on making some noise this postseason — no matter what his draw looks like.

“We definitely want to play as long as we can,” he said. “Anything can happen, that’s what’s so great about the playoffs.

“It’s always important to make a playoff run,” Mills added. “That’s what you practice and prepare for all year long. We try to go as far as we can every year, but we have the potential to go a little farther with this group.”

While the Allen boys face a tough district test, the OSSAA wasn’t any kinder to the unbeaten Lady Mustangs, who will have to get past a talented Tupelo squad to win their district title.

Jeremy Strong’s club successfully defended its Pontotoc Conference Tournament title in December and heads toward February ranked No. 16 in Class A (down from No. 12 a couple of weeks ago despite improving to 13-0 during that time).

Tupelo, meanwhile, has a solid group of seniors led by Shanna Davidson — one of the area’s top players and best all-around athletes — and entered Friday’s action with a 14-5 record. The winner of the girls district at Allen will face the winner of the district at Caddo (where the host team is ranked No. 17).

The area’s other ranked girls squad from Class A — No. 14 Stonewall — will host Sasakwa and Wetumka in a three-team district, with the winner advancing to a first-round regional showdown with No. 7 Caney. No. 3 New Lima, which entered Saturday’s title game at the Roff Invitational with a 20-0 record, is part of the other half of the area bracket.

Roff’s improving Tigers — 12-7 after a tough loss to Konawa in Friday’s semifinals at the Roff Invitational — should be a solid favorite in a district tournament at Paoli that includes the host squad and Macomb. And, although the Tigers are part of a tough regional that includes No. 4 Fort Cobb-Broxton, No. 11 Sterling (Roff’s probable second-round opponent if the Tigers win their district) and No. 14 Binger-Oney, and have No. 8 Velma-Alma on the other side of the area bracket, their road to Oklahoma City doesn’t appear to be nearly as strewn with potholes as Allen’s.

In Class B action, Asher will host a district that includes Coyle and old rival Wanette, and Calvin will be part of a tough three-team district at Varnum that includes the host squad and Dustin.