Oklahoma 3A girls quarterfinals: Perry gets breakthrough win at state; Idabel extends win streak to 23; No. 1 Lincoln Christian, defending champion Jones advance to semifinals

By Buck Ringgold I Photos by Josh Cleary

OKLAHOMA CITY - Prior to Wednesday's Class 3A quarterfinal, Perry coach Paul Duncan wanted to have his senior post, Braylee Dale, start strong.

Dale did just that, and the rest of the Lady Maroons followed suit as they did something they've waited a long time to do - win a state tournament game.

With Dale ending up scoring 23 points and nearly getting a double-double, Perry led from wire to wire in a 52-36 win against Sequoyah-Tahlequah at State Fair Arena.

"What (Duncan) says most of the time is, 'If it doesn't start with me, then it starts with the rest of them,' our 3-point shooters," said Dale, who goes 5-foot-11. "But (Wednesday) he told me it was going to start with me, and I had to knock down shots to get everyone going because once I start get going, then everyone starts to get going."

Dale scored seven points as part of an early 12-2 surge by the Lady Maroons, who also had the game's first seven points. That lead was extended to 15-2 before the end of the opening quarter on a 3 from junior guard Maebry Shields.

But Dale was far from finished.

She put the exclamation point on a big first half for the Lady Maroons when she got an offensive rebound and put the ball back in through the net as time expired to end the first half. That allowed Perry to build a 20-point lead, 29-9.

"I'm glad she's on my team," Duncan said of Dale. "She's really tough to cover one-on-one, and when you have some shooters, it ends up being some times where she can shoot and go one-on-one. And when she finishes, she's really good."

Perry (24-2) also hit 3-pointers at opportune moments. Senior guard Atlanta Ward had three of those, including one to begin the second-half scoring as the Lady Maroons were in command, leading 32-9.

"Atlanta Ward, she's kind of been a forgotten member of our team," Duncan said. "She doesn't shoot the ball a whole lot, she really guards on the other end and usually guards the other team's point guard, but (Wednesday) she hit a couple of 3's.

"I've been telling her all year long, 'If you hit one, we're going to beat people; if you hit two, we're going to beat good people,' and (Wednesday) she hit two, and so we beat somebody pretty good."

Perry, ranked No. 2 in 3A, also beat a team that had been knocking off some higher-ranked foes of late. Sequoyah, ranked No. 20 in 3A, had beaten 4A No. 3 Holland Hall, 4A No. 7 Ada and 4A No. 9 Inola and also beat 3A No. 8 Kansas, 42-36, in last weekend's area consolation final to earn the trip to state.

But the Lady Indians never recovered from the early start from Perry. The Lady Maroons' lead remained in double digits from the first quarter on.

"Last year, we ended up getting beat in the first round, and so we kind of had a focus to get back here and we wanted to play the next day," Duncan said. "That was our focus to come out, play well early and I thought our experience showed a little bit early, and now we're getting ready to go play on Friday."

Perry's win on Wednesday also snapped a lengthy drought, as it was the Lady Maroons' first win at the state tournament in the modern era.

"It honestly feels amazing," Ward said. "It all starts with our team, like not one individual is any better than another; it's the trust we all have together, and it just feels amazing to make history for the Perry Lady Maroons."

Dale, who scored 34 points in Perry's area championship win against Luther last week, followed that up with her 23-point outing Wednesday, making 9-of-16 shots from the field while grabbing nine rebounds. She also had four assists.

"Just going out there, I just know I've got to go out there and just do what I do, and what I do is just get boards and go up and get rebounds," Dale said.

"I'm just lucky to be there whenever we're not knocking down shots from outside, I'm just lucky to be in the post."

Sophomore guard Kennedy Hight also nearly recorded a double-double with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting and nine rebounds. Ward had nine points and half of Perry's six 3-pointers.

Harley Culie, a senior center, led Sequoyah (18-12) with 16 points. She also made four 3's.

Perry will now advance to Friday's semifinals in Yukon and play defending 3A champion Jones, ranked No.3. The two teams played earlier this season, with the Lady Maroons getting the win, 40-39, in the title game of the Wheat Capital tournament in Enid.

"Man, they're really good," Duncan said of Jones. "Coach (Jenni) Holbrook does a fantastic job.

"We played them earlier in the year in the Wheat Capital finals and were fortunate to win, but man, they're good and it's going to be awesome."

Idabel 60, Bethel 46

Putting a long winning streak on the line, the Lady Warriors jumped out to a fast start in scoring points.

Then, after being severely pushed by the Lady Wildcats, Idabel slowed the ball down, working the clock to find open looks and getting clutch points as the No. 4 ranked Lady Warriors have now won 23 straight ballgames.

"I feel like this is a big stage for us; Idabel girls basketball hasn't been here (since 2005), and my whole speech in the locker room was, 'Rise to the occasion,'" Idabel coach Kayla Denton said. "I felt like we did that by playing together and playing as a team.

"I feel like we did a really good job of giving everybody the ball. Our stat sheet is everybody basically scores, and it's been like that the whole season."

Early on, Idabel didn't show any signs of not having been at state in nearly two decades. The Lady Warriors built an early 14-5 lead and made it 21-7 before the end of the first quarter on a 3 from senior guard Jaylee Lopez.

Lopez and another senior guard, Alexzandria Thompson, had two-thirds of that point production through the opening quarter. But though Lopez showed no outward signs of nerves, she still knew the magnitude of playing under the bright lights of "The Big House."

"It was definitely nerves," Lopez said. "I was nervous; this was my first time here, but we played hard."

Bethel (22-5) made a charge in the second quarter, cutting Idabel's lead to four before the Lady Warriors went into the locker room up six, 36-30. The Lady Wildcats then made it a three-point Idabel lead, 46-43, with more than six minutes left on a basket from freshman Josie Megehee.

That's when Denton used a stalling tactic, as the Lady Warriors drained the clock, putting the ball in the hands of a freshman point guard, Mercades Lopez, Jaylee Lopez's younger sister.

Utilizing a variety of crossover dribbles, Mercades Lopez helped keep Bethel at bay, as the Lady Warriors waited for the right moments.

They got them.

Mary Carden, the Lady Warriors' 6-6 sophomore center, got a put-back shot off a miss. After a Bethel turnover, Mercades Lopez found her sister, who hit a 3 with less than five minutes left to build Idabel's lead to eight, 51-43.

"We've come a long ways with that, because we used to get a little antsy my first year and then getting that discipline in them," Denton said. "I think that we did a pretty good job now of doing that; we get a little careless and all that stuff, but we get the job done."

Still using a deliberate offense, Idabel continued to extend its advantage. The finishing touches were applied by senior A'Niyah Winston, who caught a pass in the corner and launched a 3 with less than three minutes left to make it 58-43.

"We do that quite often, especially against good teams," Jaylee Lopez said of the Lady Warriors' stall game.

"We just had to relax and be ourselves, play as a team and not get so pushy, like forcing things because we tend to do that a lot, like we have to score. We just had to slow down and get it together."

Lopez ended up with 20 points. She went 8-of-8 from the free-throw line, converted two 3-pointers and had four assists.

Carden finished with a double-double, 18 points and 15 rebounds, part of a 31-24 rebounding edge for Idabel. The sophomore also was 9-of-13 from the field.

Megehee ended up with 18 points and made two 3's. Senior guard Parker Stevenson added 15 points, converting three treys as well.

Idabel's win now sets up a 3A semifinal showdown Friday in Yukon against 3A No. 1 ranked Lincoln Christian. 

"Big test for us. ... We'll see," Denton said of Lincoln Christian. "We'll give it our best shot."

Lincoln Christian 51, Luther 25

For a half, the Lady Lions were hanging tough with the 3A No. 1 ranked Lady Bulldogs.

Before that first half ended, though, a big shot helped swing momentum in Lincoln Christian's favor in the second half.

With her team trailing 19-16, the Lady Bulldogs' Adyson Roberts drained a deep 3-pointer from the right wing with time running out in the opening half, tying the score at 19-all.

Lincoln then led by one, 22-21, early in the second half, before breaking the game wide open.

The Lady Bulldogs (20-5) ran off 20 unanswered points.

Junior guard Ellie Brueggemann, the team's leading scorer, had been held in check in the first half, being held to three points.

But early in that decisive run, she knocked down a 3-pointer, then caught a pass from a teammate before quickly spotting up and hitting a mid-range jumper, which gave the Lady Bulldogs a 29-21 lead.

On the Lady Bulldogs' next scoring play, they successfully executed a fast break, with Brueggemann passing it to Chloe Ricke, who in turn found Audrey Hopkins for the finish.

Lexi Murphy added a 3 to start the fourth-quarter scoring as the run continued with a 38-21 advantage. A layup from Roberts moments later capped the run as Lincoln was now in command, turning a one-point lead into a 21-point advantage, 42-21.

Hopkins, a freshman forward, led the Lady Bulldogs with 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting. Ricke, a senior forward, added nine points and seven rebounds while the Lady Bulldogs got eight points each from Brueggemann and Roberts, a junior guard.

Despite the loss, 5-10 senior forward Savannah Nunley had a big game for Luther (23-5).

She led all scorers with 17 points and also grabbed 16 rebounds. Nunley was 5-of-10 from the field and 7-of-8 from the foul line.

Jones 48, Keys 35

The defending 3A champion Lady Longhorns used a pivotal second quarter to seize control in Wednesday's 3A quarterfinal.

Leading 15-10 after one quarter, Jones (22-4) held the Lady Cougars to five second-quarter points in extending their advantage to 13 at the half, 28-15.

Jones later led, 38-27, after three quarters before starting the fourth quarter on an 8-2 run.

The Lady Longhorns got a stellar game from Sofi Woodson, a 6-2 sophomore. Woodson scored 20 points on 10-of-16 shooting and also grabbed 12 rebounds for a double-double.

Junior point guard Boston Berry added eight points, five rebounds and five assists.

Senior forward Kylie Eubanks led Keys (21-6) with 14 points, while sophomore Allie Eubanks added nine.

Sequoyah vs. Perry

Luther vs. Lincoln Christian