OKLAHOMA CITY – Early in the third quarter of the Class 4A state semifinals, the top-ranked Bethany Lady Bronchos found themselves in an unusual position – they trailed their opponent.

Not since playing nationally-ranked squads in Washington, D.C. in early January had Bethany (25-4) been in this position. Of its four losses, three were to elite schools in other states. The other loss was to last year’s Class 6A champion and power Edmond North.

They would need that experience to beat Douglass, 78-68, Friday (March 8) at Jim Norick Arena.

No. 16 Douglass, underrated by its peer schools in Class 4A, stayed close to Bethany in the first half, trailing 35-31 at the intermission.

The Trojanettes (20-4) came out of the break on fire, going on a 8-0 run (with two 3-pointers) which turned the Bethany lead to a three-point deficit, 38-35.

It was quick. It was sudden and Bethany coach Eric Sailer called a timeout to regroup.

“We had the moment where we were like, ‘Oh, we need to get this together,’ ” junior Kayten Donley said. “And I think when we came together in our huddle, we got our minds right and then we’re ready to go after that because we weren’t going down.

“We can’t do this to our seniors.”

Bethany came back, tying the ball game three times, but “the storm,” as Sailer refers to these moments, wasn’t over as Douglass (who hit eight treys in the contest) always had an answer. It wasn’t until midway through the quarter that senior Zya Vann scored a bucket to give the Lady Bronchos a 47-45 lead, a lead they would never relinquish.

Bethany stretched the lead to 61-51 on a key 3-pointer from senior Avery Marchino with 6:22 left in the game. A trey from Douglass junior Brianna Jones cut the lead to 61-54 with 5:29 left.

After a Bethany timeout, Marchino hit two free throws to get the lead back to nine points (63-54) with 5:07 left. On the other end of the floor, Marchino grabbed a key rebound which led to a Zya Vann score to make it 65-54 game with 3:55.

Douglass had one more run in them as junior Jordyn Anderson and Jones combined for a 7-0 run to cut the lead back to seven points (68-61) with 1:56 left.

From there, time was on Bethany’s side. The Lady Bronchos began to milk the clock and force Douglass to foul.

Jones got the Trojanettes back to a seven-point deficit with a long 3-pointer from near the OSSAA logo in front of the Douglass bench with 1:09 left (71-64).

Bethany took advantage of the free throws as Marchino, junior Keziah Lofton, and Zya Vann hit 7-of-8 from the free throw line to seal the win.

Marchino led the team with 19 points, hitting 6-of-7 from the field and 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Early in the game, she was an option as Zya Vann dealt with two fouls and the Douglass defense converged on Lofton.

Sailer said Marchino’s play, including her big 3-pointer and free throws were important.

“Those plays right there just extend the game for us. And, it kind of relieves some of that pressure off of us defensively,” Sailer said. “We don’t have to be perfect in every defensive possession when we’re making our threes.”

All five starters scored in double figures with Zya Vann scoring 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting. Junior Talia Vann added 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting. The younger Vann also grabbed 10 rebounds before fouling out with :32 left in the game.

Lofton added 11 points and 10 boards and Donley scored 13 points with nine rebounds and three steals.

“As a coach, you can plan for a team that has a shooter or maybe even two, possibly even three. But when you can put five shooters out on the floor, that’s hard to defend,” Sailer said. “And the girls really stepped out, hit some big shots.”

Sailer called Donley “a high-IQ player.”

“We love to stick (Donley) in the middle. And when you’re in the middle, you’re usually not the one that’s scoring. You’re usually the one that sacrificing yourself for the team,” Sailer said. “She does a great job of being able to find the open girls in the corner or being able to hand it off to somebody who’s going to the basket.”

Ava Dorris grabbed three rebounds and got a steal in 12 minutes on the floor. While her stat line wasn’t eye-popping, Sailer praised the senior.

“(Ava) gave us some great defensive minutes. Super proud of her,” Sailer said. “But that is an example of what our team is built upon. It’s whoever’s turn it is to go out and perform, we go out and perform and we’re a tight knit group.”

Sailer made a point to beef up the team’s schedule with big-time opponents and he thinks it made a difference in games like this one.

“Those games really had me as a coach to, to understand that we can get out and, and press full court. We can do these things on a four quarter basis,” Sailer said. “Being down, that taught us a lot, but I knew we had something else in us and I knew we weren’t just going to give it up.”

Douglass had three players in double-figures with Anderson and Jones each scoring 21 points.

UP NEXT: The Lady Bronchos will meet Lincoln Christian Saturday in a rematch of last year’s title game. The Bulldogs beat Glenpool, 53-40, in the other semifinal Friday morning.

Tip-off for the championship game is at 10 a.m.

TEAM	1	2	3	4	F
Douglass	13	18	16	21	68
Bethany	18	17	21	22	78