Despite seeing a 23-game winning streak snapped in an area finals loss, the Madill Lady Wildcats bounced back in convincing fashion to topple Ardmore, 71-43, and punch their ticket to the state tournament for the first time in school history.
That victory was a culmination of a journey of goals that the Lady Wildcats had set prior to the season and carries them into this week’s Class 4A state tournament in Oklahoma City with a 26-2 record. They were scheduled to meet top-ranked Lincoln Christian at 9 p.m. Wednesday nightatStateFairArena, which is hosting the state tournament for the final time this year.
“We had goals in place at the beginning of the season that we wanted to reach and we were able to do that,” said head coach Eric Holmes. “We wanted to bring the trophy back in our rivalry with Kingston. We wanted to be districtchampionsandhadto go to Idabel and win, which wasatoughenvironment.We wanted the regional championship which we were able to host and our next goal was to make it to state for the first time. It is just an awesome feeling and history in the making.
“It’s a big step for our program to reach the state tournament. Getting to that milestone is huge since they’ve never been there. We were close last year but injuries kind of derailed us. This year the girls stuck together through all the adversity. It was an all-in effort. The girls really put in the work.
We’ve got a lot of our core group coming back next year so this is just the start. Experience is what we needed and we’ve been able to get that.”
In the 54-39 loss to secondranked Douglass, the Lady Wildcats stood toe-to-toe with the athletic Lady Trojans for three stanzas.
Madill led 10-7 through one quarter before Douglass answered to take a 20-15 advantage at halftime. The Lady Wildcats utilized six points from E’Niyah Holmes in the third frame as they notched an 11-9 scoring edge tonarrowthegaptojustthree points.
Douglass however proved to be too much in the fourth quarter by erupting for a closing 23-13 scoring run.
Elexis Holmes tallied 13 points to lead the Madill scoring withE’NiyahHolmesalso reaching double figures with 11. La’Miyah Brown notched seven, Luci Douglass had five and Arlette Andrade pitched in three points.
After not shooting the ball very well in back-to-back outings, the Lady Wildcats finally found their touch in the consolation finale facing Ardmore.
E’Niyah Holmes once again spurred a 13-6 first period burst with seven points for Madill. It was a 29-21 edge for the Lady Wildcats at intermission before Elexis Holmes took over after the break.
The freshman pumped in eight points in the third stanza, staking the Lady Wildcats to a 49-32 advantage, along with another nine in the final frame as Madill pulled away.
The Holmes sisters combined for seven three pointers with four coming from Elexisonthewayto23points. E’Niyah added three treys and finished with 19 points.
La’Miyah Brown tallied 12 with Ireland Groeber and Arlette Andrade tossing in seven points apiece.
“We were only down three going into the fourth against a very good Douglass team and were close most of the game,” Holmes added. “We had some foul trouble but stayed with it. The girls bounced back and took care ofbusinessthenextnight.We shot the ball very well against Ardmore, which helped pick up the scoring.
“The loss to Douglass was an eye opener for us and we refocused. The girls took that to heart.
We’ve been playing really good basketball the last 25 games and have done a good job of getting better and better each time on the floor.”