Ott leads Lomega to regional crown

Next time, Medford “Ott” to guard Hadley a little better.

Sharp-shooting Hadley Ott nailed six 3-pointers Monday to help lead No. 1 Lomega to its third victory of the year over No. 16 Medford.

Monday’s 66-45 win in Medford gave the Lady Raiders a Class B regional championship and put them within a single win of getting back to the state tournament.

The first crack at that comes at 6 p.m. Friday in an area championship game against No. 6 Arnett at Enid’s Stride Center.

Medford fell prey to Lomega by 18 and 17 points in the two previous meetings of the season, but appeared quite determined to keep this one much closer.

The Lady Cardinals actually led 14-13 after a quarter and were up 23-20 about midway through the second.

That’s when Ott nailed 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to give the Lady Raiders a 26-23 lead they wouldn’t give up.

Ott already had made two treys in the first quarter.

She scored eight in the second as Lomega was able to claim a 28-13 halftime lead.

She added two more treys in the third as part of a 25-10 Lomega run to break the game open.

Ott led all scorers with 20 points.

Aliana Lawson joined the second half fun.

The fellow junior scored all 18 of her points in the final two quarters, including 12 in the third quarter.

Kate Myers contributed 13 points while Paige Wheeler scored 10.

Lomega beat Prue 9233 Friday to get into the regional title game.

Twelve Lady Raiders scored, led by Bree Yost’s 17. Ott, who made five 3-pointers, chipped in another 16.

The defending state champs enter the showdown with Arnett with a 25-3 record.

Raiders win 2 to advance to area

A nail-biting victory and a comfortable win have the Lomega Raiders back in the area tournament.

Comfort came Monday when Lomega used a big first half to down Copan 68-50 in a Class B regional consolation championship game at Medford.

That came three days after Lomega eliminated Medford on its home court in a 50-47 contest that came down to the last shot.

The Raiders led by 10 at the half in that one, but the Cardinals mounted their comeback late.

A pair of free throws by Lance Yost with just over 12 seconds to play gave the Raiders the three-point lead.

Medford got a 3-point shot off at the buzzer, but the potential tying bucket was off the mark.

Yost scored 14 for the Raiders, the first 12 of which were on 3-pointers in the first three quarters.

The Raiders were led by Ben Marsh’s 19 points. He also made four treys.

Lomega again built a double-digit lead on Monday.

After trading buckets with Copan in the first quarter, the Raiders went on a 24-9 run in the second.

That allowed them to stake a 19-point advantage.

This time they didn’t let too much of it slip away.

Copan did cut it down to 12 points entering the fourth, but Lomega went 9 of 12 from the foul line to seal the win.

Yost was 6 of 8 in the fourth and scored 19 points.

Jaxson Snowden was responsible for the early push. He scored 21 of his gamehigh 23 in the first half.

Chase Burton chipped in 15 while Marsh scored 11.

The Raiders need three wins in as many days at the area tournament to advance to state.

That begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday when they battle Vici at the Stride Center in Enid.