Perfectly Repeating: Edmond North girls get second straight 6A championship and an undefeated season
By Buck Ringgold | Photos/Video by Michael Kinney
NORMAN - She may not have hit the game-winning shot to win a state championship like her older sister did last season.
What Elle Papahronis did, though, for herself and her Edmond North teammates was just as phenomenal; not to mention perfect.
Papahronis scored 30 points - 18 in the second half - and grabbed 11 rebounds for a double-double as the Lady Huskies overcame a shaky start to cap off an undefeated season and repeat as Class 6A state champions with a 65-58 win against Norman Saturday afternoon at the Lloyd Noble Center.
“I didn’t want the last thing that I would remember about high school is losing my last game,” said Papahronis, a 5-foot-11 senior and the daughter of Edmond North coach Pete Papahronis. “I don’t know, I think I just blacked out, I was like, I have nothing to lose, so I’m going to go out and do everything I can to win this game, with myself and with my teammates and I knew that they needed me, especially being a senior and a coach’s daughter.
“I feel like if I kind of put stuff on my shoulders, then everyone else would pick it up and put some on theirs, too.”
Papahronis - who has signed to play next season at the University of San Francisco - scored 13 of Edmond North’s 19 points in the third quarter, as the Lady Huskies (29-0) turned a 31-30 halftime deficit into a 49-42 lead entering the final quarter.
She continued to add key points in the fourth, but perhaps Papahronis’ biggest play wasn’t a basket or a foul shot from her.
Norman made a late charge at North, and the Lady Tigers got to within two, 57-55, on a pair of free throws from sophomore Keeley Parks with 1:57 remaining.
On the ensuing possession, Papahronis got the ball and was immediately trapped in the corner by several Lady Tiger defenders. But at the last instant, she spotted her teammate, Allison Heathcock, all alone near the basket.
Papahronis fired a pass down low, and Heathcock was there to lay it in, giving the Lady Huskies a two-possession lead.
“When teams get desperate, they do all sorts of things, and I think that basket right there kind of broke them and made us realize like, ‘We have the game,’” Elle Papahronis said. “It was just a good feeling to know that it was our game at that point.”
Edmond North then built the lead back to seven, when Kate Melton received a backdoor cut for a basket and Papahronis hit a free throw with 50 seconds left.
The Lady Tigers had one more glimmer of hope seconds later when senior Jordyn Rollins completed a three-point play. But Edmond North senior Laci Steele hit two free throws of her own, and eventually, the Lady Huskies were able to celebrate another title.
“It was difficult; all season long, we were blowing out teams,” Steele said. “It was a struggle to be in that position, but we knew if we kept our heads and slowly getting stops on defense, we were going to come back and that’s exactly what we did.”
Last season in the 6A championship game, Edmond North rallied in the second half to beat Bixby in overtime on a game-winning basket from Toni Papahronis, who is now playing at the Naval Academy, as time expired.
“My answer is the same as last year, I’m happy for my daughter, I’m happy for her all the time, but really, I’ve got 10 daughters out there and I love every one of these girls,” Pete Papahronis said. “I’m with them as much as I’m with my daughter, and I’m probably with them more than their parents are with the hours we put in, and they know the hours we put in.”
The Lady Huskies survived a scare from Putnam City West in Friday’s semifinals to be one win away from perfection. But to do so, they had to cool off a red-hot Norman team that had won 12 straight, with the Lady Tigers’ last loss coming to Edmond North on Jan. 17.
Norman, with its tenacious defense and array of size, jumped out to a 9-2 advantage while holding Edmond North to 2-of-11 shooting (18.2 percent) in the first quarter as that lead grew to 10, 16-6.
The Lady Tigers (22-5) then extended it to 13, 26-13, with more than five minutes left until halftime. That’s when Edmond North went to work, methodically putting together a 17-5 run to end the first half, closing to within one at the break.
“We just came out without a sense of urgency,” Pete Papahronis said. “I think we forgot this is a state tournament and it doesn’t matter your records, it doesn’t matter your rankings, people are hungry.
“They came out and slapped us in the mouth, and once we kind of realized, ‘Hey, we need to have a sense of urgency,’ you saw us picking it up in the second quarter. I think that kind of turned the game around and we were lucky we didn’t put ourselves in a big enough hole.”
In the second half, the Lady Huskies went on an 11-0 run to go in front, 45-36. They shot 70 percent from the field (7-of-10) in the second quarter and 53.8 percent in the third (7-of-13) to turn things around.
But they couldn’t shake off the Lady Tigers.
Edmond North, though, was able to hit its foul shots. After going 13-of-23 from the line before making 3-of-4 down the stretch to pull off the semifinal win Friday, the Lady Huskies made 25-of-31 free throws Saturday.
Steele went a perfect 11-for-11 at the line, while Elle Papahronis was 13-of-17.
“We’re usually a pretty decent free-throw shooting team; sometimes, the ball just doesn’t fall and you can’t fret on it,” Pete Papahronis said. “We didn’t fret on it, we just said, ‘Hey, there’s nothing wrong with our shots, it’s just in our minds to go out there and shoot the ball,’ and they were finally falling.”
Steele, the program’s all-time leading scorer and a North Carolina State signee, had 19 points in the win. Following Saturday’s game, Pete Papahronis remarked how difficult next season will be without his two senior leaders in Steele and Elle Papahronis.
Class 6A girls champion Edmond North
“It’s going to be hard,” Pete Papahronis said. “When we have our first practice (next season) and these two aren’t going to be at practice, it’s going to be really, really hard for me. … I love these two and what they’ve done for this team and for this program and for the school, unmatched, and you saw it (Saturday).
“These girls have brought this program on the map; not themselves only, but four-year starters and in my opinion, the best senior tandem in the state of Oklahoma. They’re a coach’s dream to coach. … When everyone says, ‘You do a good job,’ it’s really easy to do a great job when I have these two for four years starting for us.”
Heathcock, a junior who is a Creighton University commit, was also in double figures for Edmond North with 10 points.
Parks, the daughter of Norman coach Frankie Parks, had a sterling game herself on Saturday, finishing with 27 points, including making two 3-pointers, and going 9-of-10 from the foul line. Rollins, a senior who is headed to Arkansas Tech, added nine points and seven rebounds.
Several days ago, when talking about the pressure of finishing with an undefeated season, Pete Papahronis mentioned that it’s not a perfect season unless one wins state. Last season, the Lady Huskies lost once but claimed the championship, and the coach considered that a perfect season.
Saturday, there was no doubt it was another perfect season for the Lady Huskies.
“If you win that gold ball, that’s a perfect season,” Papahronis said. “Even if you have a losing record, it’s a perfect season (if you win state). … That’s what everybody plays for, that’s what all 32 teams (in Class 6A) work every single day for, so that’s a perfect season, yes.”
