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Mar. 12—OKLAHOMA CITY — A year after getting told they wouldn’t play here regardless of having qualified, No. 5 Fort Gibson is taking it the distance in the Class 4A state tournament.
A 10-0 start, and another 10-0 run to quiet a second-quarter charge by the No. 4 Weatherford Lady Eagles, has the Lady Tigers in another title battle, winning 62-48 in the first semifinal Thursday night at Jim Norick Arena.
“We knew we had an opportunity,” Fort Gibson coach Chuck London said, his team now 21-3. “Way back in September we said, ‘girls, we have a shot with this team.’ We’ve had bumps in the road, but toughness is what’s gotten us here.
“We’re satisfied, but not satisfied.”
They’ll go rest a day before meeting No. 3 Tuttle (23-3), who upset No. 2 Anadarko 40-37, at noon Saturday, looking for their fifth championship in school history. If tonight was an indication, the rest day caused by the altered pandemic related schedule of games is doing the Lady Tigers a lot of good.
Take Kynzi London.
The coach’s daughter and senior guard missed all eight of her 3s in the upset of No. 1 Classen SAS on Tuesday. Against Weatherford, she was 6-of-8 from beyond the arc, 7-of-10 overall, and finished with a game-high 22 points.
“I mean, they were coming to me with the ball and the shots were going in,” she said. “You take the shots you can get. They just weren’t going in last time.
“But yeah, I absolutely love the day off we’re getting.”
So now she’ll get to do what her middle sister, Baylee, didn’t get to do with her last year, thanks to the the Utah Jazz, the Oklahoma City Thunder shutdown and all the scrambling from this COVID-19 epicenter that led to the ultimate cancellation of last year’s tournament, Fort Gibson’s 16th consecutive trip.
“Last year was so tough,” she said. “It was important to come back and play for them.”
Those seniors are represented by a poster on the Lady Tigers’ bench for qualification No. 17.
“We’re family. Our girls know that, those seniors know that,” said her father and coach.
Fort Gibson’s defense, so integral in Tuesday’s 39-29 win over a team that had averaged 71.7 points per contest, showed up ready to play again.
Weatherford came up empty on its first seven trips down the floor, four of which were turnovers. At the other end, London had a pair of 3s among eight of the Lady Tigers’ 10 points into a timeout at the 3:23 mark, pitching a shutout at this point.
They led 15-7 at the end of the quarter.
The Lady Eagles used ball pressure to force Fort Gibson into some mistakes in an early second-quarter run that ended with a 3 by Ashlyn Sage to tie it at 16 with 5:35 left in the half, as London the coach took a timeout.
Back on the floor, his squad connected on three consecutive trips. Kynzi London hit a 3 off the right wing on the initial possession after the timeout. Then came Jordan Gann’s putback off a miss by Gracy Shieldnight, and a 3-pointer by Jenna Whiteley.
Two possessions later, after Whiteley chased down a loose ball at midcourt, Lexie Foutch fed Gann underneath and with 2:11 left in the half, Fort Gibson had regained its 10-point lead with another 10-0 run, 26-16.
“We absorbed that run, regrouped and extended it again,” the FGHS coach said. “I thought that was key.”
Kynzi London, who was 4-of-6 from 3 point range in the first half, capped her half with a driving layup to make it 4-of-6 from the floor, and her team was up 30-22 at the half.
London’s sixth 3, coming with 4:33 in the third, made it a 40-25 game. Her two-pointer with 4:53 left in the contest gave Fort Gibson its biggest lead, 56-37. Her free throws with under a minute to go finished the scoring.
Gann had 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting inside the paint, shots that opened as Weatherford had to focus more on the perimeter. Whiteley was 3-of-11 from the floor, but all were big 3s to go with three free throws. She had 12 points.
The offensive flow’s driver was Reese Webb handling the point. She had five assists for the contest.
Shieldnight, instrumental in the defensive effort inside in the quarterfinal, had another solid performance in that department. The freshman had three of Fort Gibson’s six steals.
Shieldnight is aware of the family tie especially well. Her older sister Zoe was part of two title games, including the 2018 title team as a senior.
“She set a standard of her own, and kept up the tradition and everything,” the younger Shieldnight said. “It’s ours to uphold. We’re ready to go. This is what we’ve prepared for since the summer. We’re where we want to be.”
Weatherford sophomore guard Jordan Hoffman led her team, finishing at 23-5, with 15 points, one of three in double figures. She was equally impactful on the defensive end with five steals.
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