The Piedmont Lady Cats defeated Bishop McGuinness High School in the Class 5A Basketball State Tournament opening round by double digits after holding a commanding lead all night.
Piedmont’s Lady Cats basketball made an early run toward another state championship. The Lady Cats are the defending Class 5A champs after winning it all in 2019 and then having the season halted by the pandemic in 2020.
Piedmont won 46-29 Thursday.
The second half opened with Piedmont ahead 35-18. Khloe Carr had three treys in the game.
Piedmont led 45-29 with about three minutes left. Delanie Crawford started to put on a show with 16 points in the second half after a slow start in the game.
Piedmont led 22-10 toward the end of the first half. Khloe Carr nailed her second trey for a 25-10 lead.
The Lady Cats opened the first round of the Class 5A State Tournament Thursday night in Tulsa against Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School.
The game is being played at Tulsa Memorial High School. Maddy Lee scored Piedmont’s first bucket to take the 2-0 lead. McGuinness came back for an early 5-4 lead in the first quarter. A McGuinness trey increased the Fighting Irish lead to 8-4. The first quarter ended 8-8.
Khloe Carr nailed a trey in the second quarter and the Lady Cats pulled ahead 13-8. Carr had seven points in the first half.
Delanie Crawford got her first basket of the game off a steal and a layup to make the score 15-8.
Piedmont did not have a foul called on them in the first 11 minutes of the game.
Piedmont will play Tahlequah at 6 p.m. Friday at Tulsa Memorial High School. Tahlequah defeated Carl Albert Thursday 62-47.
Earlier in the day, El Reno defeated Lawton MacArthur 42-40. Piedmont and El Reno could meet in the championship game on Saturday if both teams make it through the brackets.
Piedmont won the 2019 state championship, and the 2020 tournament was canceled last year due to the pandemic.
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