MUSTANG – Bethany nearly recovered from a slow start Friday (Dec. 29) against Class 6A defending champ Edmond North, but the Lady Bronchos had to play catch up the rest of the game, dropping a 60-55 contest to the Lady Huskies in the semifinals of the girls bracket at Bank 7 Mustang Holiday Classic.

Bethany (5-2 and top-ranked in Class 4A) had to climb out of a 13-4 hole after one period. The Lady Bronchos took an early lead but were held scoreless for nearly seven minutes until Keziah Lofton scored a bucket with 6:57 left in the second quarter.

“We knew our hands were full,” Bethany coach Eric Sailer said. “We had a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting in the second quarter that we needed to answer.”

Bethany answered with senior Zya Vann, who scored a game-high 22 points. The Lady Bronchos cut the deficit to two points three minutes later and only trailed by four at halftime.

“We just talk about every possession of the ball game is a page in the story and so we got to make sure that we win that page every time,” Sailer said.

Edmond North (7-0) started to rewrite the story in the third quarter, taking advantage of Bethany’s physical play by getting to the free throw line.

Senior guard Kate Melton was fouled and went to the line four straight trips down the floor. Melton, who led the Lady Huskies with 18 points, hit 6-of-8 from the line during that stretch and Bethany’s deficit doubled from four points to eight.

The Lady Bronchos cut the deficit back to three on a Lofton bucket at the start of the fourth quarter but couldn’t overcome Edmond North, who was 22-of-31 from the free throw line.

“We talked about towards the end of the game not being so physical because the officials were really looking to blow their whistle at the end,” Sailer said. “We talked about how in our case, we are being looked at with a fine glass, a microscope. So, every action that we do is being visible and being seen by others. That’s not fair for us, but that’s where we’re at in our season with who we are. We just gotta make sure we always choose to do the right thing.”

Bethany overcame another Lady Husky run and a technical foul on Kayten Donley. The junior redeemed herself with four points in the last four minutes. She intercepted a pass and took it the other way for a bucket to cut the deficit again to four, 57-53, with 1:31 left.

Edmond North sealed the win by moving to a “stall ball” philosophy, hitting 3-of-6 from the line and keeping the ball away from Bethany for the win.

Sailer hopes the loss is a learning experience as he guides his team through a tough non-conference schedule.

“You can lose the game and you can lose or you can lose the game and you can learn,” Sailer said. “Hopefully we can learn from our mistakes.”

A day after Edmond North’s Allison Heathcock set a tournament record with 31 points against Okemah, Bethany held her to 17 points (and only five points in the second half). The senior guard and Creighton commit was 5-of-12 from the field and 5-for-5 from the free throw line.

“(Donley, Zya Vann, and senior Ava Dorris) did a good job of limiting her opportunities to get her shot off,” Sailer said.

Zya Vann’s 22 points came on 9-of-20 shooting from the field. Lofton added 13 points and 10 rebounds. Donley scored 12 points and grabbed five boards.

UP NEXT: The Lady Bronchos meet Class A’s top team in Seiling (7-1). The Lady Cats suffered their first loss Friday night against host Mustang, 74-67, in the other semifinal game. Tip-off is Saturday (Dec. 30) at 4 p.m.

TEAM	1	2	3	4	F
Bethany	4	19	16	16	55
Edmond North	13	14	17	16	60