Mar. 1—OKLAHOMA CITY — The Lady Pirates battled until the end.
The fourth-ranked Cyril Lady Pirates advanced to Thursday’s Class A state quarterfinal by going unbeaten in district, regional and area play in the postseason. The Lady Pirates faced seventh-ranked Oklahoma Bible Academy at Jim Norick Arena in Oklahoma City and kept fighting.
Despite a 54-36 loss to OBA, the Lady Pirates were close in the second half until a third-quarter surge gave the Lady Trojans momentum and a decent amount of separation between them and their opponent.
Close at halftime
The Lady Pirates — down a key player in Whitney McHugh — kept things close after OBA built a 14-6 advantage in the first half. McHugh — a senior — did get to go in off the bench at the end of the game.
Khloe Goombi hit two of Cyril’s three triples in the game, and her first 3-pointer made the score 14-9 in favor of OBA. The Lady Pirates grabbed a little momentum after tailing 18-11 later in the quarter, going on a 5-0 run to cut their deficit to just two points before trailing by just five points at halftime.
Third quarter
Cyril was still close to its opponent a little bit after the start of the third quarter. With Cyril down 23-18, Goombi buried her second triple of the game and cut the team’s deficit to just two points before the Lady Trojans pulled away.
After Cyril made the score 23-21, OBA went on a 13-0 run to go up 15 before Averi Carlson hit Cyril’s third and final 3-pointer of the game. OBA led 39-24 after three quarters and kept that separation in the final period.
Stats
One player for each team led the way with 19 points.
Cyril’s Hadley Gibson was one of those players, and she finished with more than half of Cyril’s point total. She scored 10 of her 19 points in the second half, made seven field goals and went perfect on free throws for the Lady Pirates.
Season
The Lady Pirates ended their season with a record of 22-5 on the season.
That 22-5 season saw Cyril win district, regional and area titles in the postseason and a tournament title in Minco during the regular season. Cyril defeated a ranked 3A team in that championship game.
Cyril also had multiple players reach 1,000 points in their careers and were consistently in the top five of the Class A rankings.
