Okarche girls’ upset bid falls short; Warriors outrun Hominy

Okarche had the No. 7 team on the ropes.

But Oklahoma Bible Academy came off of them swinging and survived the Lady Warriors’ upset attempts.

The Lady Trojans erased an 11-0 deficit late in the third quarter to earn a 44-39 come-from-behind win over Okarche on the Lady Warriors’ home court Thursday in a Class A regional semifinal.

The win sends OBA to Saturday’s regional championship game while Okarche was sent to the consolation bracket. It played Glencoe at 1 p.m. Friday (after press time) to try to remain alive in the playoffs.

The Three Rivers Conference foes were meeting for the second time this season, the first of which went to OBA by four points on the Lady Trojans’ home court.

Okarche led this one from the start and took its largest lead when Katie Parham nabbed a steal and passed it ahead to Scout Payne for a layup.

That gave Okarche a 33-22 advantage with 2:20 left in the third quarter.

That’s when OBA mounted its comeback.

Brianna Colby’s threepoint play with 6:40 left got the Lady Trojans within four.

Lilyan Walden followed with a 3-pointer at the 4:00 mark and then Conley Cayot with another 27 seconds later.

The latter gave OBA a 35-33 lead it wouldn’t lose.

By the time Jadyn Rother made two free throws with 56.6 seconds to play, OBA had completed a 15-0 run.

Those free throws cut Okarche’s deficit to two points and the Lady Warriors were able to get it to that margin twice more in the final seconds.

But Walden and Cayot combined to make 7 of 8 free throws to keep pushing it back to a two-possession game.

Those two combined to score 17 of OBA’s 20 points in the fourth.

Cayot finished with 19 points to lead all scorers.

Rother led Okarche with 15.

She had 10 in the first half as the Lady Warriors staked a 21-16 advantage.

The senior opened the second half with a 3-pointer as the Lady Warriors continued to extend their lead.

Parham and Payne scored 10 points apiece.

Warriors pace, scoring depth too much Okarche was simply too much for Hominy.

The visiting Bucks were talented, athletic and game on Thursday.

But they didn’t have enough to keep up with No. 4 Okarche as the Warriors pulled away for an 88-56 victory in their Class A regional semifinal.

The win puts Okarche into Saturday’s night’s regional championship against Pond Creek-Hunter, which knocked off Garber 54-50.

Hominy entered Thursday’s matchup with an 18-4 record and athleticism to spare all over the court.

The Bucks went toe-totoe with the Warriors for much of the first quarter.

“Then we started getting some transition buckets to open it up a little,” said coach Aaron West.

Easton Roby’s steal and layup with just seconds left in the quarter gave the Warriors a 26-19 lead.

Wyatt Pinkerton, Hunter Mueggenborg and Jett Mueggenborg each made 3-pointers to open up the second quarter and continue to open up the lead.

It swelled to 49-32 at the half.

The visitors kept it in that range much of the third quarter, but Okarche closed the game on a 21-4 run.

Okarche forced 20 turnovers and scored 27 points off them.

Jett Mueggenborg led all scorers with 31 points. He was 13 of 22 from the field.

He also had six rebounds and six assists.

Roby added 13 points while Hunter Mueggenborg and Caden Schieber scored 11 each.

Schieber earned a double- double with his 11 rebounds.

Elijah Hughes paced the Bucks with 17. Okarche held Jaxon Woods, the team’s leading scorer for the season, to just five points.