'We wanted to beat them so bad': Seiling avenges 2021 loss, edges Hydro-Eakly for Class A girls basketball title
Teagan Hamar went to the free-throw line with the weight of a state championship on her shoulders.
In a one-point game, the Seiling guard had a chance to put her team ahead with 18 seconds to play.
But with all of the rigorous free-throw shooting a coach’s daughter endures, Hamar was built for situations like these.
“Ready for the moment,” Hamar said.
Hamar knocked down both free throws to put Seiling over the top. On the defensive end, Seiling caused a missed shot and Aryahna Whetstone pulled down a rebound over two defenders to make the final statement.
Seiling is back on top.
In a wire-to-wire battle, Seiling took down the two-time defending state champions Hydro-Eakly 47-46 to win the Class A state championship on Saturday. Seiling went on an 8-2 run to close the game to win its seventh state championship and its first since 2019.
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“I was just praying,” Brady Hamar said of his daughter at the free-throw line. “She spent a ton of hours in the gym and I think it’s one of those deals that paid off at that point. That’s kind of those things where you want something good to happen for her because you’re telling her all the time it’ll pay off and it’s one of those times it did.”
Last year, Seiling lost to Hydro-Eakly in the semifinals by 18 points. The loss didn’t cause the girls to hang their heads. Instead, it motivated them. And that showed early on Saturday.
“We were ready,” Seiling star guard Braci Nyberg said. “We wanted to beat them so bad.”
Whetstone followed, “We decided before we were going to come out and shut them down this game, it’s not going to be a repeat.”
Initially, that’s exactly what Seiling did.
It took Seiling inside of 10 seconds to score its first basket and just one minute to build a 6-0 lead as Madison Klaver and Whetstone took on the scoring load. But it was short-lived as Seiling only scored two points the rest of the quarter, opening a run for Hydro-Eakly. Tessa York, Kira Berkey and Rees Berkey took advantage and gave Hydro-Eakly an 11-8 lead by the end of the first quarter.
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Seiling responded, outscoring Hydro-Eakly 17-10 in the second quarter to take a close halftime lead. But as Seiling and Hydro-Eakly have proved to be two of the most physical team in the state, each dealt with foul trouble. After going on a 7-0 solo run, Seiling’s Nyberg committed her third foul with just under five minutes left to play in the second quarter.
Two minutes later, Hydro-Eakly’s point guard Kira picked up her fourth foul with just over four minutes left to play in the third quarter. Each had to miss an extendd period of time and Hydro-Eakly's star Rees took over.
Rees scored 10 points to catapult a 13-2 run midway through the fourth quarter to give Hydro-Eakly the lead. Rees finished with 20 points and six rebounds.
But Rees was plagued by foul trouble as well, picking up her fifth and fouling out to send Teagan to the line with 18 seconds to win the game. Whetstone led Seiling with 13 points, Nyberg 11 and Hamar finished with eight.
Seiling won four consecutive titles from 2016-to 2019. With a team filled with freshmen and sophomores there’s optimism it’ll have a chance to put together multiple-championship runs again.
“It’s similar to that group we had three years ago when we won four in a row,” Brady said when asked to compare the teams, “They’re similar but they’re not quite as physical and so it’s something we’ve got to work on but I think it'll come with age."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Seiling tops Hydro-Eakly for 2022 Class A girls basketball state title
