Lomega girls return to their lofty standards by claiming Class B state championship
OKLAHOMA CITY — The standard is the standard.
That has been the mindset of the Lomega girls' basketball team every time they tip off a season.
After winning 14 championships since 1982, the standard is to end each season as the last team standing. However, they failed to do that in the past two seasons.
Despite that, Lomega coach Kevin Lewallen came into the 2023-24 campaign with the same high expectations of bringing home the gold ball. That mission was accomplished Saturday night with a 53-43 victory over Lookeba-Sickles in the Class B state championship game at State Fair Arena.
“People all the time say we're spoiled, which we are because our goal at the start of the year is not to make it to the state tournament,” Lewallen said. “We never talk about making it to the state tournament. We talk about winning the state tournament; that's every year at the first of October, that's what we're talking about.
"We want to win the state tournament. And I mean we've won a few and we've lost a few, but that's our goal every year. So to get it again is really sweet.”
The Lady Raiders (30-2) now have 15 championships. That includes six since 2012.
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Abby Swart was part of the last one during her freshman year. But after not finishing the job in 2022 and 2023, the senior was glad to get the program back to its winning ways.
“This year, we just knew what we wanted and we knew we could get here even though it was going to be tough,” Swart said. “But we knew we had the mentality for it, and so here we are.”
Swart led the Lady Raiders with 21 points on 6-of-14 shooting. The 5-foot-5 guard also hauled five rebounds in 31 minutes of action.
Hadley Ott posted 14 points and seven rebounds, while Aliana Lawson added 10 points and eight rebounds.
“We've hustled, we've worked hard all season,” Lawson said. “We've just done everything we needed to do.”
Lookeba-Sickles kept within striking distance of Lomega for much of the night. In the fourth quarter, the Lady Raiders pushed their lead to double figures before the Lady Panthers cut it back down to nine, 48-39, with three minutes left.
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Lookeba-Sickles had an opportunity to inch closer. However, after missing a 3-point attempt that would have cut the deficit to six, Lawson made 1-of-2 free throws to push the advantage to 10.
The Lady Panthers scored on back-to-back possessions to cut the lead to 49-43 with 1:45 left on the clock. But the Lady Raiders were able to run 48 seconds off the clock before they were fouled. Monse Rivera and Lawson hit their free throws down the stretch to put the contest away.
Ellie Willard paced Lookeba-Sickles with 21 points. Maggie Masheney added 11 points and five boards.
Lomega outrebounded Lookeba-Sickles, 25-20. They also hit twice as many 3-pointers (8 to 4).
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Lewallen credits his team’s depth for being able to pull out the game. All season they have been able to wear squads down with their running and pressure.
And he knew exactly when they had gotten to the Lady Panthers.
“Our whole goal this year was to make people play faster than what they wanted to play,” Lewallen said. “Make them play faster than they played all year. Try to wear them down.
"I told them it might not take its toll until the middle of the third quarter or the start of the fourth, but I said, we're going to play a lot of girls and you got to play as hard as you can the whole time you're out there. And I think they really embraced that. I think about that six-minute mark of the fourth quarter, you could tell that their legs were going. I told them you just keep it on the gas pedal.”
-- Michael Kinney | @SBLiveOK
