Dominant fourth quarter lifts Bethany to another title

OKLAHOMA CITY – Bethany won its second straight Class 4A State Championship in girls basketball on the strength of a dominant defensive performance in the fourth quarter, beating Lincoln Christian, 48-28, Saturday (March 9) at Jim Norick Arena.

The Lady Bronchos (26-4) opened up a 10-point lead (24-14) with :32 left before halftime. Lincoln Christian, facing Bethany in the finals for the second straight year, cut the lead to 24-17 at the break.

The Bulldogs (25-4) went on a 7-0 run to start the third quarter, tying the game at 24-24 with 5:44 left.

Bethany pulled away with buckets from juniors Keziah Lofton and Kayten Donley. Senior Avery Marchino turned a halfcourt steal into an easy layup. Donley added a 3-point play off an inbounds play (made possible by a big defensive rebound she snagged).

By the end of the third quarter, the tie ballgame was a 35-26 Bethany lead.

With that lead, the Lady Bronchos turned up the defensive pressure and utilized its new best friend: the game clock.

The Bulldog’s Stewart scored a bucket with 7:24 left in the game to make it 35-28.

Those were the last points Lincoln Christian would score as Bethany finished the game on a 13-0 run.

Donley scored another bucket after Bethany drained the clock with a long possession. Junior Talia Vann putback her own miss after another clock-draining possession. Donley collected a steal. Junior Keziah Lofton hit 1-of-2 from the free throw line.

The 7-point game was now a 12-point game and three minutes were off the clock when Lincoln Christian called timeout with 4:38 left, trailing 40-28.

Bethany would get four more points from senior Zya Vann and four more from Lofton to close out the win.

Bethany coach Eric Sailer said he knew the importance of running clock to put pressure on Lincoln Christian.

“We knew that there wasn’t a 14-point shot out there.

“I think the pressure of them being down 14 was a little bit too much for (Lincoln Christian),” Sailer said. “But we did a good job of contesting shots, pulling big time rebounds down to limit their opportunities.”

‘ROLE PLAYER’ TAKES CENTER STAGE
Donley finished with a game-high 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting, hitting 2-of-3 from the beyond the arc.

Sometimes overshadowed by Zya Vann and Lofton, both OU signees, Sailer recognizes her worth.

“Kayten does Kayten things,” Sailer said.

After hosting the regional, Sailer went into the visitors’ locker room. He saw that the opposing coach had written Vann and Lofton’s names on the white board. Next to Donley’s name was the description: “role player.”

“She’s the best darn role player I’ve ever coached,” Sailer said. “She’s not a role player and they found out.”

TIME TO CELEBRATE FOR OU SIGNEES

Oklahoma signee Zya Vann added 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting. She also grabbed a team-high four rebounds. Lofton, another OU signee but still a junior, added 11 points and three rebounds.

After the game, Vann and Lofton were asked if they were going to watch the OU game.

“We gotta celebrate!” Lofton said with a laugh. “We’ll watch, don’t worry about it. We’re gonna celebrate first.”

There were no worries as the Sooners with Zya and Talia Vann’s older sister, Skylar, beat TCU in the Big 12 tournament.

4A REPEAT CHAMPIONS RARE

Bethany joined a small group of schools to repeat in Class 4A including Mustang (1980 and 1981), Carl Albert (1988 and 1989) and Fort Gibson (2013 and 2014).

As for going for a 3-peat?

“It’s definitely gonna be harder without the four (seniors),” Donley said. “But, I think we’re gonna be seniors. I think we can do it.”

“I think they can do it,” senior Zya Vann said with a laugh.

BUILDING A PROGRAM

The title makes the girls basketball program at Bethany the first to have multiple titles at the school. Bethany owns titles in baseball (1955 in Class B), football (2001 in 2A), boys basketball (2003 in 3A) and boys cross country (2023 in 4A).

“Games like this are banner games. We get a banner, you know, in our gym, we get to add years to our banner,” Sailer said.

Bethany was one of the last group of schools to transition from 6-on-6 girls basketball to 5-on-5 in the 1990s, with little sustained success.

“Seven years ago when I got there, We didn’t have very much up there, but we’ve made damage. We put our name up there,” Sailer said. “Those are memories that we built within this community and those little kids that are in elementary school and middle school, they see it, they see it and they want a piece of that.”

“They want to be a part of this team.”

TEAM	1	2	3	4	F
Lincoln Christian	10	7	9	2	28
Bethany	13	9	11	13	48