Morning glory: Holland Hall girls take down Midwest City Carl Albert to reach 5A final
By Christian Potts
NORMAN - With so many games sharing the big courts during the state basketball tournament, invariably some games have to be played at odd hours.
Like 9 a.m., when Tulsa Holland Hall has tipped in each of its first two games at this year's Class 5A state tournament.
But being flexible has been key all season for the Lady Dutch and their program, and they used the early start to their advantage in a 56-41 semifinal victory against Midwest City Carl Albert on Friday at the University of Oklahoma's Lloyd Noble Center.
The Lady Dutch will be joined in the championship game by No. 1 ranked Sapulpa, a 58-44 winner a couple of hours later on Friday. The championship game is at noon Saturday back at the Lloyd Noble Center.
The early wake-up call was no problem for the Dutch, who never trailed after the 4:31 mark of the first quarter and never let Carl Albert inside of a 10-point margin after halftime.
"We've somehow managed to get stuck with the 9 a.m. game every year, so at this point we're kind of used to it," said Holland Hall senior Sophia Regalado.
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Senior guard Elise Hill paced the way for Holland Hall with 25 points, including 8-of-8 free throws to totally ice the game away in the closing minutes. But it was the all-around game of Regalado that was perhaps as important for the Dutch.
Regalado gave Carl Albert trouble in the paint, from the 3-point line and on the defensive end. She filled the stat sheet with 17 points, seven rebounds, two steals and a drawn charge.
"That's a kid that probably doesn't always get the recognition that she deserves," Holland Hall coach Crystal Lawson said. "Every game, she comes ready to play. She's a competitor, you never have to get onto the kid for not working hard."
The Dutch jumped out to an 18-8 lead after a quarter and led 22-11 midway in the second when Regalado went to the bench with her second foul. But Holland Hall weathered that stretch, maintaining a 27-15 edge at the half.
"We're always nervous when Sophia gets in foul trouble, because she's kind of the do-everything for us," Lawson said. "She rebounds, she defends the inside well.
"I did think Miranda Davis stepped up and did a great job defensively, and I was proud of all of the team."
In the second half, the Dutch continued to make things tough on the Lady Titans' array of outside shooting threats. Carl Albert wound up making just 5-of-20 from 3-point range and only shot 30 percent overall from the field (13-for-43) in the game.
Slowing the Lady Titans' proficiency with the outside shot was a point of emphasis for the Lady Dutch going into the game.
"I thought they executed our game plan very well," Lawson said of her team. "We were really focused on defense in practice. They're (Carl Albert) a great team with a lot of great shooters, and I thought we did a great job containing their catch-and-shoot 3's in transition."
Taking on these early tipoffs is far from the only adjustment Holland Hall has had to make this season. The Lady Dutch traded places with Ardmore's Lady Tigers in a move up from Class 4A to 5A in early January - about halfway into the current season - after the OSSAA discovered they should have been in the division from the start of the year.
But they've handled the adjustment well, as they're now one of the last two teams standing.
"At first it definitely felt like a disadvantage, because we had to continue playing 4A schools in our conference, we weren't able to play any 5A schools," Regalado said. "We were kind of nervous, but we just came prepared, and we kept working, and we knew we'd be able to handle them, anyway."
So far they have, with a starring role in that effort going to their senior point guard.
Hill, who is headed to the University of Tulsa, handled everything Carl Albert threw at her. She added six rebounds, five assists and three steals to her game-high of 25 points.
The Lady Titans got 13 points from Ariana Diaz and eight from Kennedy Cofer. That pair, along with fellow senior Kamryn Sutton, concluded standout careers for the Lady Titans, with this season wrapping up at 22-6.
Sapulpa 58, El Reno 44
El Reno pushed the pace early against the talented Sapulpa squad, but Stailee Heard and her teammates were up to the challenge.
And while the senior Oklahoma State signee led the way - with 18 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and six steals - she had plenty of support from a balanced effort.
Riki McQuarters added 14 points in just 18 minutes. Tyla Heard scored nine points and pulled down eight boards. Taylor Bilby scored seven and Mataya Hall six, and everyone competed for 32 minutes on the defensive end.
"We have to have that all the time, have more than one person score," Heard said. "We had to play defense and rebound. We knew coming in that we were the better team, and we just have to play like it."
In doing so, Sapulpa avenged a 59-50 defeat to El Reno at this point of last year's 5A playoffs.
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The big run for the Lady Chiefs took place at the end of the first half and start of the second, when Sapulpa outscored El Reno, 15-2, to extend a 26-22 lead out to the game's widest margin at 41-24.
El Reno fought back, largely on the shooting of guard Reagan Bugaj. The Lady Indians got back within 48-39 with about five minutes to go, but Sapulpa took care of business late at the foul line, in all converting 14-of-15 free throws in the game.
Bugaj finished with a game-high 20 points, draining eight of her 10 shots, including three treys. Pauline Black-Harmon, the lone returning starter from El Reno's state runner-up last year, finished next with eight for the Lady Indians.
For Heard, who has bigger things ahead in the future in Stillwater, there still is one more huge game to play Saturday.
"It's my last year, and since we got knocked out last year in the semis, going to a state championship this year, it means everything to me," she said.
