Okarche girls’ run ends 1 win shy of state

Four and seven. Those were the streaks put to an end Saturday when Hydro-Eakly defeated Okarche 55-35 in their Class A girls area consolation championship in Enid. It put to an end a streak of four straight elimination wins by the Lady Warriors, including two in the previous two days. It also halted the run of seven straight trips to the state tournament. The Lady Warriors were sent to the playoff consolation bracket more than a week earlier in a regional semifinal loss to Shattuck. They ran off a pair of wins to get out of the regional, then opened the area with a 46-27 elimination win over Glencoe. That set up a rematch last Friday with Shattuck, one that saw the Lady Warriors exact revenge in a 44-30 victory. Okarche scored the game’s first 11 points and made its first five 3-pointers - three by Kassidy Rother - in jumping out to a 22-10 lead. For the second straight day, Okarche’s offense sputtered in the second quarter, but pitched a shutout to extend its lead to 25-10. Shattuck cut the deficit to as few as eight in the third quarter, but never got closer. Rother led the team with 17 points. Rachel McDowell scored nine. Saturday’s start was the exact opposite. Fifth-ranked Hydro-Eakly got out to a 14-0 lead and Okarche never recovered. The ninth-ranked Lady Warriors closed to within 10 at halftime, but it was back to 16 points entering the fourth. McDowell scored eight to lead Okarche. Karsyn Vallerand added seven and Jade Owens six. Okarche’s season ends with a 25-7 record.