Class 2A girls basketball: Oklahoma Bible Academy knocks off Dale in OSSAA semifinals

Posted by author March 7, 2025 Basketball

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The Oklahoma high school basketball Class 2A girls state tournament continued Friday with the semifinals at State Fair Arena. Here’s a look at what happened.

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Lilyan Walden isn’t always Oklahoma Bible Academy’s go-to threat offensively.

But Walden, a senior, has proved something during her time with the Trojans.

When she’s on, Walden is beyond difficult to stop.

“If I see the first one go in, that bucket gets pretty big and my teammates find me,” she said.

That’s what happened in the semifinals Friday.

Walden got into a groove and went on to score 24 points, leading Class 2A fifth-ranked OBA to a 58-47 win over No. 1 Dale at State Fair Arena.

Walden was efficient as she hit 6 of 8 shots from the field, including 5 of 6 from 3-point range. She was also nearly perfect from the free-throw line, hitting 7 of 8 attempts.

“Lilyan has spurtability I think is the word,” OBA coach Randy Roth said. “She came in on a mission. And when she gets into that rhythm, it’s hard to stop her. And she had that rhythm early on.”

OBA (32-1) led 23-21 at halftime and outscored Dale (28-3) by two in the third before pulling away in the fourth.

Walden was the main star, but it was a team effort for OBA as four girls scored in double figures.

Conley Cayot had 12, while Karson Jenkins had 11 and Kami Jenkins had 10.

Skylar Anderson and Danika Pendley led Dale. Anderson had a team-high 17 points and eight rebounds, and Pendley had 14 points.

For Roth, ball control played a crucial role in OBA’s victory.

“Not turning the ball over, trying to take care of the ball, find gaps in their defense and making good passes,” he said.

Both OBA and Dale made it to title games last year.

OBA, which won its lone state championship in 1971, was in Class A last season and lost to Seiling 64-46 in the title game.

The transition to Class 2A wasn’t necessarily easy, but OBA hasn’t slowed down.

“It’s really difficult,” Roth said. “There was a mental block early in the year because we lost in the finals last year, but we got moved up anyway. The girls really wanted to play Seiling again. There’s a little bit of a grudge there. We weren’t going to get to do that. There was a little bit of a hurdle to overcome.”

OBA’s lone loss this season was against Hooker at regionals as the Trojans fell 34-33.

They had a close battle in the quarterfinals Thursday against sixth-ranked Latta and escaped with a 41-40 win.

Walden had six points in that matchup and knew she could play a bigger offensive role Friday.

“Going back over yesterday, I didn’t really score,” Walden said. “I put my team in a bad spot, but I knew today it being Dale, No. 1, that’s a big thing.”

— Nick Sardis, Staff writer