‘Gold just feels a lot better’

The tears that had dripped onto the silver ball had barely dried when Abby Swart got a text message.

It was March 4, 2023, and Lomega had just been defeated by Hammon in the Class B girls state title game.

It was the second year in a row for Lomega to lose in the championship game after winning the title the two times prior.

Swart, a junior on that team, had one more shot at capping her career with gold and someone was determined to help make it happen.

“I texted Abby as soon as the game was over,” said Hadley Ott, a freshman in 2023. “I told her how good of a player she was and I promised her in that text that I was going to get her a gold ball.”

Although Ott didn’t do it single-handedly, she certainly delivered. Lomega slayed the beast that is Hammon in an epic semifinal Friday and then outlasted Lookeba-Sickles late Saturday night to hoist an ever-growing record 16th state basketball championship at State Fair Arena.

One of many heroes over the weekend for the Lady Raiders, Ott made a crucial 3-pointer in the win against Hammon and then put together an all-around effort in the championship game, a 53-43 victory over No. 5 Lookeba-Sickles.

“I’m so glad we got it for Abby and Monse (Rivera),” Ott said.

••• Kevin Lewallen tried to warn everyone over the summer that things might look different for his team the next year.

Gone were Darcy Roberts and Sydni Walker, two stalwarts that helped the Lady Raiders to the state title game four years in a row.

Lomega was left with almost no size and a roster full of Lady Raiders who would have to take on bigger roles in 2023-24.

So he tinkered during summer ball with his defensive scheme while also going five deep on his bench.

And that was his strategy to begin the season.

Five Lady Raiders started. Five more came in four minutes later.

It promptly resulted in a 20-point loss to Dover its first in that series since 2006 - in the first game of the season.

Lewallen wasn’t worried.

“A loss in November is never bad,” he said. “A loss in December is never bad.”

Others weren’t so certain. Lewallen got a call last weekend from former Superintendent Steve Mendell.

He told Lewallen he thought the coach was crazy for the way he was handling his team’s substitution patterns early on.

“And we were,” Lewallen admitted. “But I had to figure out who was going to be ready to step up and play and I had until January to do it.”

Ott remembers the loss well.

“I honestly think that was the best thing that happened to us,” she said. “It got us to really hook up and work that much harder.”

Swart agreed. “We knew we had to get better and it all started at the next practice,” she said.

Lewallen kept his heavy rotation and, he said, almost expected another loss or two during the course of the season.

After the Dover defeat, Lomega rattled off 10 straight wins before the Christmas break, including beating Arnett - an eventual state tournament team - in the finals of the Canton Invitational.

Then, just after Christmas break, Lomega made its appearance in the Warrior Classic in Hammon.

The team raised some eyebrows - and gave itself a heavy dose of self-confidence - when it beat Hammon in the championship.

The losses Lewallen half expected never came. The Lady Raiders’ win streak hit 22 before being upended by Class A No. 1 Seiling, which just won its seventh state championship in nine years.

Along the way, Lewallen’s rotation tightened up a bit, but he still played enough ladies to keep his team fresh.

None of that seemed to matter in the first half Friday in the rematch against Hammon.

The Lady Warriors - led by 6-foot-4 junior center Henley West - scored the game’s first five points and were up 26-18 at halftime.

West had eight points and four rebounds, but just as important, was able to control the paint with four blocks.

Lomega was running an offense with four players on the perimeter and one in the post, which allowed West to stay inside.

Inside or out, Lomega wasn’t making shots as evidenced by its 28.6 percent shooting.

In the second half, Lewallen made the move to run a “five out” offense.

“We were going to force them to bring her (West) out of the lane to guard someone or it meant someone for us was going to be open,” Lewallen said.

Hammon chose to leave someone open, which wouldn’t matter if Lomega couldn’t make the shots.

“We started making them, which always makes you look like a much better coach,” Lewallen said.

The main culprits were Swart, Rivera and Aliana Lawson.

The latter in that trio had drawn the particular ire of Lewallen at halftime.

Lawson had developed into an added weapon for Lomega during the second semester.

She had been ineffective in the first two quarters of the semifinal as she boasted just one point.

“I challenged her at halftime as much as I’ve challenged anyone,” Lewallen said.

The sophomore forward responded like few could.

She scored nine points in the third quarter, including four free throws in the final 95 seconds to get Lomega within a point.

The fourth quarter proved to be a classic as both teams countered one another with big shot after big shot.

For Hammon, it was mostly senior Edwina Pewo.

She made two of Hammon’s three 3-pointers in the quarter as well as another three-point play.

Pewo helped Hammon claw back from a five-point deficit in the fourth.

That deficit came within the first minute of the fourth.

Lawson built on her third-quarter momentum with a 3-pointer.

That was followed by a trey from Rivera, her third of the half.

Lomega assistant coach Bowan Nyberg nicknamed Rivera “The Silent Assassin.”

“That’s what she is. She never changes. She’s so quiet and just gets her job done. If someone told you when Monse was a freshman that she’d eventually start in two championship games, you would have thought they were crazy,” Lewallen said.

“But she’s worked at it and Bowan is right about her. For no more credit than she gets, she’s made some big shots for us in the state tournament.”

Swart nailed a 3-pointer with 4:40 to play to put Lomega up 51-47.

That’s when Pewo answered with six straight points to reclaim the lead for Hammon.

She scored again with 2:35 to play to put the Lady Warriors up 55-53.

That’s when Ott made her first big delivery on her promise to Swart.

She caught a pass in the corner and nailed a 3-pointer to give Lomega a 56-55 lead with 1:42 remaining.

“I was definitely praying as it was going up,” Ott said. “I hadn’t really done a lot the entire game, so I was super glad to see it go in.”

The second half - namely the frantic fourth quarter - was paying a toll on West.

When Lomega fouled her with 1:15 to play, she grimaced in pain. One of her calves was cramping.

With the pain evident, West missed her first free throw.

Coach Clay Conley called a timeout before her second foul shot. The entire timeout for West was spent being stretched out.

She responded by tying the game with her second attempt.

Lomega worked down most of the clock before Hammon fouled, though the Lady Raiders weren’t yet in the bonus.

Then, with just seconds remaining, Lawson attacked the bucket - and West.

A foul was called. Lawson missed her first free throw, but gave Lomega a one-point lead with 4.6 seconds to play.

Hammon’s long pass sailed over West’s head and Chloe Meier intercepted it before dribbling out the clock.

Lomega 57, Hammon 56.

West had 16 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and six blocks.

Pewo finished with 18 points.

But the defending champs had been ousted.

Lomega went 7 of 15 from 3-point range in the second half and shot 45 percent over the final two quarters.

Rivera scored nine points while Swart had scored 14.

But it was Lawson who delivered the win.

She scored 17 of her 18 in the second half.

“I told her after the game that the second half could have gone one of two ways,” Lewallen said. “She could have sulked and pouted after I got after her and we could have lost.

“Or she could do what she did and it was definitely a proud moment.”

The victory vaulted Lomega into the championship game for a fifth straight year.

Added to the weight of playing a talented Lookeba- Sickles squad was Lewallen’s concern that Friday’s win took too much out of his team.

“It was huge to beat Hammon,” he said. “And that had me worried going into Saturday. We spent so much time and energy on Hammon that it’s a real concern that you come out flat.”

The concern was somewhat warranted.

Lomega scored just nine points in the first quarter.

“We may not have necessarily been flat,” he said. “But we weren’t sharp.”

None of those first-quarter points belonged to Swart, but she quickly changed that.

She tied the game with a 3-pointer just 15 seconds into the second quarter. She made another just 25 seconds later.

Then came another bucket and another 3-pointer.

Swart scored 11 straight for the Lady Raiders and eventually had 16 in the quarter.

While she did make four treys, she was also attacking.

“Coach Lew kept telling me I needed to get to the rim,” she said.

He’d been telling her all season.

“Everyone knows there’s not a better shooter in Oklahoma,” said Lewallen. “But all year I’ve been telling her that good teams aren’t just going to let her sit out there and shoot the ball.”

So Lewallen preached the need to attack off the dribble more, telling her it would result in some buckets and some free throws, but it would also draw in defenses and open up teammates more.

She followed through on that at state.

“I thought those were maybe the three best games she’s played when you take everything into consideration,” Lewallen said. “Scoring. Rebounding. Defensively. Getting others involved.

“She did it all.” Ott also nailed a 3-pointer and scored five points in the second quarter as Lomega took a 30-24 halftime lead.

She made another as part of a 9-2 Lomega run to start the third quarter to open a 39-26 advantage.

Lookeba-Sickles’ senior standout Ellie Willard did her best to keep her team in the game.

After Ott’s 3-pointer with 2:33 left in the third gave Lomega a 44-31 lead, Willard scored five straight to get the deficit to eight points by the end of the quarter.

She scored 21 in the game.

“We tried to guard her the best we could,” Lewallen said. “But she’s a great player and she’s going to get her points.

“We thought we could guard the others well enough to make it tough for them to get points.”

All the while, Lomega kept up its frantic pace, which was - and always is - by design.

“We wanted to make them run because we knew they didn’t play a lot of girls,” Lewallen said. “And I thought they got tired.”

He was right. Lookeba-Sickles only scored five points through the first 6:15 of the fourth quarter - all Willard free throws.

Even her shots stopped dropping as it took her 25 attempts to get her point total.

The Lady Panthers’ Maggie Masheney scored 11, but was just 4 of 11 from the field.

As a team, Lookeba was limited to 27 percent shooting (15 of 56) overall, including 4 of 24 (16.7 percent) from 3-point range.

But Lomega’s scoring pace had also slowed.

When Lookeba’s Kenzli Locke did score her team’s first field goal of the fourth quarter, it pulled the Lady Panthers within 49-43 with 1:45 to play.

Lomega dashed all hopes, though, when it ate 47 seconds off the clock before Lookeba-Sickles could foul.

When it did, Rivera calmly sank two free throws with 58 seconds to go.

Lawson added two more with 38 seconds left to get to the final margin.

Lawson scored 10 points and led the team with eight rebounds.

Ott made as many 3-pointers as the opponent, going 4 of 7 from long range.

She finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

“That had been my prayer all week long, just to help my team whatever way was needed,” she said.

“Tonight I felt like I needed to shoot the ball well and so it’s all glory to God.”

Swart was named tournament MVP as she scored 21 points to go with five rebounds and three steals. After two years of taking home the wrong colored trophy, Swart had once again helped deliver a championship to the most title-rich program in Oklahoma girls basketball history.

“I wanted to get back to this game and give it my all,” she said. “This was going to be my last game and I just wanted to leave it all out there on the floor.”

She was aided by two points each from Rivera and Paige Wheeler. Kate Myers scored four points and had four rebounds.

Together, their relentless attack wore down three consecutive foes.

“I have the best teammates,” Swart said. “I don’t want to sound biased, but they’re the best.

“We just all love basketball so much and we want to succeed.”

Success is expected at Lomega, but it’s not given, just as was proven in that first game of the season.

“We’ve worked our tails off since then,” Swart said. “And it showed here.”

Ott was among those who were determined to make the likes of Swart and Rivera go out winners.

“It’s everybody’s dream to win a state championship,” Ott said. “Last year it definitely hurt getting the silver.

“Gold just feels a lot better.”