Streaking to gold: Bethany girls cap long winning surge with Class 4A title
By Ty Loftis | Photos/Video by George Mitchell
OKLAHOMA CITY - Bethany completed a near perfect season on Saturday by defeating Lincoln Christian, 48-36, for the Class 4A girls championship at Jim Norick Arena.
Their lone loss came in early January to Tuttle and since that loss, the Lady Bronchos (29-1) finished with 19 consecutive wins to take home the gold ball. The streak included avenging that loss to Tuttle in Friday's 4A semifinals.
Bethany coach Eric Sailer knew Saturday’s matchup wouldn’t be easy, and that it was going to come down to his team's effort defensively.
“They are the best shooting team in the state,” Sailer said of Lincoln Christian. “We knew we could only allow them to get one shot opportunity and we had to crash the boards. (Saturday), we did that.”
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To Sailer’s point, Bethany edged Lincoln Christian by 11 rebounds on the day.
Sailer added another key in getting the win was getting off to a quick start, something the Lady Bronchos had no problem doing, as they led 18-3 at the end of the first quarter.
“I’m going to be honest with you, I never looked at the scoreboard there in the first quarter,” Sailer said.
“I wanted our girls to be even keel and level headed and not to think about the score.”
As good teams do, the Lady Bulldogs - ranked No. 1 entering the 4A playoffs - responded in the second quarter, as they outscored Bethany, 12-5, and trimmed the Bethany lead to eight at halftime and had it down to six in the early stages of the second half.
Keziah Lofton, a sophomore and University of Oklahoma commit who finished with a game-high 21 points, remarked after the game she expected that they would face some adversity at some point.
“They are too good to lay over, but I just trusted my teammates and we did what it took to go out and get the win,” Lofton said.
Just as Lincoln Christian got it to within six, Lofton scored four straight to stretch the lead back to 10. In the fourth quarter, Maddi Stewart drained back-to-back 3's, closing the margin to six one final time before the Lady Bronchos ended the game on a 10-4 run to put the game away.
Lofton goes back to that loss to Tuttle as motivation for closing out Saturday’s championship win.
“That loss left a bad taste in our mouth,” Lofton said. “We knew we were better than that and it really lit a fire under us to go out and get a state title.”
This is Bethany’s first state title in school history, and Sailer talks about what it means to be a part of that.
“We have been close quite a few times, but to finally break through with this group, it means a lot,” Sailer said.
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With it being Lofton’s first state title, it has left her hungry for more hardware next year.
“Being state champs is a great feeling,” Lofton said. “Going out and getting another one would add to it.”
To go along with Lofton’s 21 points, Kayten Donley scored 17.
Stewart led the way for Lincoln Christian, scoring 12 points, as the Lady Bulldogs' season comes to an end with a record of 27-2.
