Published: February 26, 2008 10:42 pm      

Three away from state

It has been a groundbreaking season for the Oklahoma Christian School girls, who have advanced to the Class 2A Area Tournament for the first time under fourth-year head coach Elizabeth Clower. But the Lady Saints want more.

The team has struggled in recent years and lost to Mounds by five points last year in the area tournament, after receiving a bye in the district tournament. That made the team’s district tournament win over Luther all that more important.

“We wanted to prove we deserved to be in the regional tournament,” OCS coach Elizabeth Clower said. “We felt like we could do it and it makes you not want to let that slip away again.”

The Lady Saints will look to avenge Saturday night’s loss tomorrow when they head to Southeast Expo in McAlester to take on Savanna (17-7) in the Class 2A Area Tournament at 6:30 p.m.

Savanna opened the Class 2A Regional Tournament with a loss to Pocola, but knocked off OKC Dove Science and Wellston to earn a berth in the area tourney.

The Lady Bulldogs have plenty of size inside, but they also have a potent transition offense. Becca Lanham (5-8) is the team’s leading scorer.

Defensively, Clower said the Lady Saints will try to put pressure on the ball and make other players beat them.

The keys for the Lady Saints offense will be patient and their ability to hit the open shots. After a few high scoring affairs, the Lady Saints struggled to put points on the board in Saturday night’s loss to Oktaha.

“We missed a lot of point blank shots and let the pressure bother us, Instead of being quick, we got rushed and hurried,” Clower said.

A key to that offense is Megan Maguire, who sat much of Saturday night on the bench with foul trouble, and Wilson.

If the OCS girls win tomorrow night, they would need to win two more games for a spot in the state tourney. With a win, they would face the winner of the Pocola/Haskell game on Friday at 1:30 p.m.