Cyril, Empire girls fall in Class A State meet

Class A girls hit the floor at the Big House Thursday and both of Southwest Oklahoma’s teams, Empire and Cyril, saw their hopes of advancing go by the wayside after being unable to make shots down the stretch.

Cyril was down by just five at halftime, 21-16, but in the second half Oklahoma Bible started to pull away and wound up advancing with a 54-36 victory.

Empire was in even better position at halftime against Quinton, as the Bulldogs were up by a bucket at 26-24. And, even after three quarters, Empire was still in the game, trailing by one, 36-35.

But in the fourth the Bulldogs starting to suffer some costly empty possessions and soon the Bulldogs were forced to try and foul to get the ball back and Quinton made enough free throws to hold the Bulldogs at bay.

Cyril had to deal with one of the bright young stars in small-school basketball, Conley Cayot, a smooth junior. Cayot scored 16 points for OBA but she also dished out a large number of assists.

The Pirates stayed close in the first half thanks to Hadley Gibson and Khloe Goombi who both hit some big baskets to keep their team in the game.

Goombi also had a big three in the third quarter to get Cyril within two, 23-21, but the Pirates turned the ball over and Cayot hit a short jumper and right after that OBA used another Cyril turnover to give Cayot a driving layup and after that the winners just kept padding their lead.

Shane McLemore’s Pirates finished the season with a 22-5 record and with just two seniors on the club the future appears strong as their top two scorers, Gibson and Goombi, will return.

Empire girls finished the season with a 24-4 record under Coach Jaicee Powers and they made some history by becoming the first Empire girls team to reach State.

Empire’s leading scorer, KK Smith, tried to get her team going by scoring 12 points in the first half but even she started to find a cover over the bucket at the north end of Jim Norick Arena.

But the Bulldogs’ biggest problem was turnovers and the fact they couldn’t get rebounds as Quinton was shooting a large number of treys that missed the mark and the long rebounds seemed to always land in the Savages’ hands. In the first half alone, Quinton had 16 second-chance points and that increased in the fourth quarter.

One thing that appears quite obvious is that Class A girls is as tough a bracket as there is this week with Seiling appearing to be the dominating team. Seiling has scored more than 70 in its first five playoff games including a dominating 90-55 victory over Oklahoma Bible in the Area Tournament title game. Thursday morning Seiling ousted Allen, 85-37.

Tomorrow’s semifinals will match Seiling and Quinton at 9 a.m. at the Big House with Oklahoma Bible and Caddo meeting at 10:30 a.m. Caddo had to go to overtime to beat Red Oak, 42-40.