Raising the standard

It seemed a cruel twist that the final dance at “The Big House” didn’t include the team that had won more titles there than anyone.

Lomega made sure the new home of the state basketball tournament was properly introduced to Lady Raider lore.

The most historic team in Oklahoma high school girls basketball added to its legacy Saturday night with a 71-44 victory over No. 3 Leedey in the Class B-II state championship game.

“We had really been playing well since the Christmas break,” coach Kevin Lewallen said. “We’d been scoring a lot of points and not giving up a lot. This probably sounds worse than I mean it to, but I really felt we had the best team going in.

“I felt if we played our best and everyone else played their best, we could win. And we played pretty well.”

The tournament was played in OG&E Coliseum for the very first time as the structure on state fairgrounds replaced Jim Norick Arena, better known as State Fair Arena, which hosted its final games last year before being torn down.

Those games did not feature Lomega, which was ousted with two losses in the area tournament the week before. Those came at the hands of Arnett and Leedey, which proved to be two of the three victims in the 2026 version of state.

“They’re a really good team,” senior Hadley Ott said of the Lady Bison, who handily beat No. 2 Pittsburg in the semifinals. “They were really good last year and to play them again, it was just kind of a cool circle moment.”

This win was historic not just because it came in the new arena.

It was title No. 17 for Lomega, which adds to the record for girls teams in Oklahoma.

And it was the ninth state championship for Lewallen, who spent two years tied atop the record books with the legendary Bertha Frank Teague. (Note: See our story in the upcoming weekend edition for more on Lewallen breaking the record for most coaching titles.)

“We wanted to do it for him last year. That was the goal,” Ott said. “But we didn’t get it done.

“Instead of sulking on it, we just put our heads down and we went to work and we got it done this year.”

•••

The championship capped a 30-1 season for the Lady Raiders.

Although they were virtually untested at state, they were certainly battle-tested entering the playoffs.

Lomega played 24 regular season games. Nine of those games were against eight different teams that eventually reached state.

The Lady Raiders won all but one, with that lone defeat coming at the hands of Washington, the heavy favorite to repeat as the Class 3A state champion.

Lomega won two regular season tournaments, beating Fairview (2A) and Medford (B-I) in the finals of those and went 2-1 in the Bertha Frank Teague Mid-America Classic (ironic the team played in that tournament the year Lewallen broke the record).

The Lady Raiders won their first 12 games of the season and their final 18.

Entering state, they had given up a total of 87 points through four playoff games. Lomega had scored at least 87 in three of them.

The seven playoff games saw Lomega win by an average of 49 points. That included an average margin of 24 points in the state tournament.

“Depth and our style of play,” said Lewallen regarding the keys to the dominance. “We played nine and nobody else could go that deep on the bench. So we felt the faster we played, the better we were because nobody could keep running in fresh legs like us.

“And then I felt our nine played their roles about as well as they possibly could.”

Lewallen noted several instances in the tournament where non-starters like Jackie Penaran, Kinsley Fisher, Samantha Rivera and Bree Yost stepped up with big plays or consistent stretches.

“Some of it was hitting big shots, but some of it was just playing good defense, making the extra pass or getting a big block,” Lewallen said.

His starters were pretty good, too.

Four of them - Aliana Lawson, Reagan Snowden, Ott and Paige Wheeler scored in double figures in Friday’s 68-53 win over Lookeba-Sickles in the semifi nals.

Yost made a 3-pointer late in the first quarter to give Lomega a 22-20 lead.

The Lady Raiders then dominated the next two and wore down the Panthers in the process.

Wheeler scored 10, had 5 assists and 4 rebounds.

Lewallen called her one of the more unheralded pivotal players in the class.

“Paige does everything. For someone who is 5-foot-5, she rebounds it as well as anyone I’ve ever had,” he said. “She’s a pest on defense, always reaching, hacking, slapping, hustling, diving on the floor.

“If you were a high school girl, you’d hate to play against Paige Wheeler.”

Lawson conjured up images of the player who helped deliver title No. 16 as a sophomore in 2024. She scored a team-high 16 points and had 8 rebounds.

Snowden added 13 points and 6 boards.

That duo was a big advantage going into Saturday’s championship, Lewallen felt.

“I knew they would have to do some things to try to slow those two down inside,” Lewallen said. “And if they did, then that would really open it up to get Hadley some looks from the outside.”

•••

March 1, 2025, didn’t go the way Lomega had planned.

The Lady Raiders had one last gasp to punch their ticket to state and led Leedey by a point when Ott stepped to the line with about 20 seconds to play and a chance to extend the lead.

She missed both. Leedey made the goahead bucket on the other end and Ott’s attempt at a game-winning 3-pointer missed as the buzzer sounded.

Lomega’s six-year run of consecutive state tournaments were over and the Lady Raiders wouldn’t have the opportunity to play in the last year of “The Big House.”

As this year began, Lewallen told Ott that what happened last year was firmly in the past and if the situation presented itself again, she’s the one he’d want at the free throw line again.

That’s because Ott is the type of player Lewallen wants on his team.

“She isn’t the most athletic, but she gives you everything she’s got,” Lewallen said. “I tell them when they start out as third graders that if you can shoot, you can play for me because I really think you have to be able to shoot it to win.

“She took that and made it her way to get on the floor.”

And she wanted to be on the floor.

Ott grew up watching Lady Raider teams coached by Lewallen win championships and add to the history of the Raider blue.

She played a big role in Lomega’s win over Lookeba- Sickles in the 2024 championship.

Ott had one more shot to contribute another gold ball in 2026.

“All the glory goes to the Lord because this whole season, I prayed for confidence and consistency,” she said. “And time and time again, He showed up.”

Ott had some big shooting nights this season, but leading up to state, the consistency was waning a bit.

She knew there were other ways to help Lomega win.

“I didn’t shoot the ball as well, but I felt like I was doing other things well,” she said. “I was playing good defense. I was making good passes. So I was grateful to be able to do that because scoring to me doesn’t matter.

“I want to win as a team, because that’s what matters.”

In the quarterfinals, Ott’s shot was struggling to find its mark.

By the end of the game, she managed to knock down a couple in a row and finished 3 of 12 from 3-point range.

Then against Lookeba- Sickles, Ott made 4 of 5 attempts.

If she kept that up - and if Leedey had to key on Snowden and Lawson - he liked Ott’s chances of having a grand finale.

He liked them even more during warmups on Saturday.

“I watched her and she would make 10 or 11 in a row and then miss one, then she’d hit about 10 more in a row,” Lewallen said.

Meanwhile, Leedey made seven 3-pointers against Pittsburg on Friday and Lewallen said part of his defensive game plan was “to run them off the line and dribble.”

“We didn’t feel they were as good off the dribble, so we didn’t want to let them spot up and shoot,” he said. “So of course on the first couple of possessions, we left them open.”

Leedey’s Gracie Stidham and MaKinlee Carpenter opened the game with 3-pointers, putting Lomega in a 6-0 hole.

“After that, we did a much better job,” Lewallen said.

Leedey had just one more 3-pointer in the half.

Wheeler got Lomega on the board at the 5:35 mark.

That was followed by Snowden and Lawson scoring buckets to tie it up.

“Once we got the ball to go in, we were able to get in our press and really force the pace,” Lewallen said.

The depth showed up when Jackie Penaran’s 3-pointer gave Lomega a 9-6 lead.

The game was tied at 9-9, but Lomega never trailed again.

That was due, in part, to Ott getting freed up on the outside, just as Lewallen predicted.

And she delivered. She made her first trey at 3:05 of the first quarter for a 12-9 advantage.

The teams traded buckets on the next four possessions.

But while Leedey was getting two points, Ott was burying 3-pointers.

Her third one at 1:52 of the first pushed Lomega’s lead to 18-13.

But it was the start of the game-changing stretch.

That trey started a 16-2 run that saw six different Lady Raiders score.

Ott’s fourth 3-pointer of the half, with 4:58 remaining in the second quarter, pushed Lomega’s lead to 31-15.

The Lady Bison got no closer than 11 the rest of the night. Carpenter scored 14 points and was the only Leedey player in double figures.

Jenny Penaran added a 3-pointer and a putback late in the quarter to give Lomega a 38-22 lead at halftime.

At the half, Leedey had committed 15 turnovers. It was 28 by the end of the game and they resulted in 31 points for the Lady Raiders.

Jenny, the elder Penaran, finished with 6 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.

Snowden scored 13 and had 5 rebounds. Lawson scored 8 and had 4 assists and Jackie Penaran also scored 8.

But Ott wasn’t done. She dropped three more 3-pointers in the second half as the lead grew to as many as 32 points.

She finished 7 of 8 from long range for all 21 of her points. Ott added a teamhigh 7 rebounds.

For the tournament, Ott was 14 of 25 from 3-point range, a stellar 56 percent.

In her last two games, she was 11 of 13, which is an other-worldly 86 percent clip.

“I was really happy for her,” Lewallen said. “Especially after last year and how it ended…I was really happy for her.”

Ott reiterated that the team winning meant the most.

“But, you know, to shoot the ball well tonight, it means a lot,” she said. “I’m very thankful and it truly… it just shows the Lord and His goodness.”

She shot it well and the team won.

Now Ott and fellow seniors Fisher, Lawson, Wheeler, Rivera and Jenny Penaran will go down in history as players to win their final game in a Lomega uniform and add another gold ball to a trophy case that has more of them than anyone else.

That’s what matters to Ott.

“In the Skordle interview a couple weeks ago, they asked what it felt like to be a senior. I told them I didn’t feel like a senior yet,” Ott said. “This whole season I tried not to think about it, but it means a lot. Being a Lady Raider, playing with my team, it means a lot. And to win the gold ball, to play my last game and come out on top?

“It means the world.”