No. 1 Washington girls survive scare from Roland Lady Rangers

The Roland Lady Rangers gave a scare to the top-ranked Washington Lady Warriors in Thursday afternoon’s Class 3A State Tournament quarterfinals at Oklahoma City’s Jim Norick State Fair Arena, a.k.a. “The Big House,” which is seeing its final state tournaments in its 60-year history before the facility gets imploded this spring.

However, in the end, the Lady Warriors proved to be just a bit too much as they defeated the Lady Rangers 47-41.

Lillian Cole’s basket with 3:01 left in the third quarter put the Lady Rangers (22-6) ahead 31-29. It ended up being Roland’s last lead of the game.

The Lady Warriors (28-1) hit six straight free throws, four by Breanna Lindert and two by Preslee Johnson, to put Washington ahead for good at 35-31 with 1:40 remaining in the quarter.

Halle Freeman’s basket with 1:15 left in the period cut Roland’s deficit to 35-33 going into the fourth quarter.

Back-to-back baskets by senior Haven Freeman, playing her final game in a Lady Ranger uniform, cut Roland’s deficit to 39-37 with 4:54 left to play. However, the Lady Rangers got no closer.

The Lady Warriors doubled the Lady Rangers 8-4 the rest of the way to survive the Roland scare.

“That’s why they’re No. 1,” Roland girls coach Scott Nelke said. “I told the girls it was going to be a game of runs. If we made the last run, we had a chance to win. They’re a good team, and we kind of ran out of steam a little bit — and we got in foul trouble.”

The Lady Warriors scored the game’s first nine points en route to an 11-3 lead after a basket by Johnson with 4:08 left in the first quarter.

However, the Lady Rangers ended the period with a 15-1 run, capped by Ryanne Nelke’s 3-point basket with four seconds left in the quarter to give Roland an 18-12 lead entering the second period.

Nelke’s 3-pointer to begin the second quarter gave Roland its biggest lead of the game at 21-12 with 7:37 left before halftime.

However, the Lady Warriors ended the first half with a 16-3 run, capped by a pair of free throws by Lindert with 11 seconds remaining in the first half, to put Washington up 28-24 at the half.

The Lady Rangers opened the second half with a 7-1 run, capped by Cole’s basket, to give Roland its last lead of the game, and for the season, at 31-29 with 3:01 left in the third quarter.

In defeat, Nelke shared game-high honors with Washington’s trio of Lindert, Johnson and Kelby Beller who all scored 15 points, while Halle Freeman added 11 points to lead Roland, followed by Haven Freeman with eight points, Cole with five points and senior Julianna Trujillo with two points.

“What a great year,” Nelke said. “We got to come back to ‘The Big House.’ I’m proud of the girls. The hardest thing in coaching is telling them it’s over. I’m super proud of them.”