Resilience was the key last weekend as the Destiny Christian girls’ basketball team fought through rough patches to end up with the Sooner Christian Conference title.

The Lady Wildcats started their two-day championship run at Liberty Christian in Shawnee against All-Conference/Tournament player Tat Ndekwe and the Lawton Christian Lady Crusaders.

Ndekwe dominated early with 10 points and 4 rebounds. However, Destiny Christian’s freshman guard Caiti Ferguson was more than up to the task of matching Ndekwe.

Ferguson started 2-2 from the field leading to 7 points with teammate Brittany Anderson adding in 4 more points. By the end of the first quarter, the Lady Wildcats were hanging on to a 1-point lead.

Despite all of Ndekwe’s work on the glass, Destiny Christian still maintained an 11-6 advantage in rebounding. Neither team could find the range with the Lady Wildcats going 4-12 while the Lady Crusaders shot 6-16.

Although the Lady Wildcats couldn’t get a handle on their rebounding, they were able to slow down Ndekwe from scoring, allowing only 5 points between the middle quarters.

"We just made sure that when she drove into the lane we had help defense and made sure we trapped her when she got in there," said Head Coach Lori Janzen.

Finally, the Lady Wildcats broke free at the start of the fourth by going on an 11-4 run to push their lead out to 43-32. The final straw was Ndekwe fouling out with 48 seconds left, and the Lady Wildcats sealed the victory 43-38.

Ndekwe finished with 21 points and 16 rebounds to lead all scorers.

For Destiny Christian, Ferguson led the way with 13 points and 3 rebounds. Senior forward and captain Ciara McKinney added 10 points and 8 rebounds.

Day Two Comeback

Day two would be a tougher challenge for the Lady Wildcats as they took on the host Liberty Christian Lady Eagles.

The first two quarters saw an ugly game break out with Liberty Christian holding the lead the entire time.

By halftime, the score was 22-18 Lady Eagles. Destiny Christian shot a cold 6-17 while Liberty Christian wasn’t any better going 6-18.

The championship looked to be slipping away when the Lady Eagles scored the first 4 points out of halftime to extend the lead up to 8.

Cue McKinney. The captain sparked a comeback leading a 10-2 run by Destiny Christian with 3 points and 3 steals, but Liberty Christian still maintained a two-point lead.

"No matter what the score looks like, the heart and the passion is in us," said McKinney of the comeback. "We go for every ball, and we fight until the end no matter what it looks like."

Finally, Malaika Sutton, who had been 0-3 from 3-point land, hit a huge triple to tie the game at 31.

The Lady Wildcats hit another big 3-poiner after Ferguson, who had been 0-2, untied the game with a long distance bomb to give Destiny Christian a 36-35 lead.

"I always tell them to keep shooting," said Jansen of the timely 3-pointers. "We always say you miss the shots you don’t take."

Destiny Christian could never quite finish the game in the fourth, but Liberty Christian hit a seven minute scoring drought that sealed their fate.

Destiny Christian went on to win 45-39 to take the Sooner Christian Championship.

McKinney led the way with 11 points and 12 rebounds to secure an all-tournament selection to go along with her all-conference selection.

Lynsi Stanley also took home all-tournament and all-conference selections with Ferguson getting an all-tournament nod for her work through the two-days.