Michael Pineda
I’m not here to tell you that my life if magical, but one of the perks is the opportunity to go to work and find inspiration.
The reason that I bring this up is that last week, I got goosebumps while hanging out in Norman watching the Lady Demons play basketball.
The origins of discussing a past emotional state with you comes from a conversation I had with Lady Demon head coach Andrew McClung recently in discussing the support his team had this season. Often, the Lady Demons got the short end of the stick as the crowd waited until the boys game to get loud. Those things kind of happen when you start off 4-12.
Call it fortunate or unfortunate, depending on the point of view, but the Lady Demons turned it on at the end of the season, winning five of their last eight games and made a run at the state tournament. That was the fortunate part. The unfortunate was that only two of those games were in Duncan.
Those that did not hit the road were not able to gauge how much the Lady Demons had improved late in the season. Aside from a 70-50 loss to Elgin, Duncan played well down the stretch and nearly pulled off one of the biggest stories in the state.
The win over Ada gave the team a newfound confidence heading into the regional tournament as it knocked off a team that had already picked up wins of 48-35 and 53-37. The Lady Demons then pulled off a trifecta, beating Altus for the third time this season and then fell to El Reno, which placed it in the area consolation bracket.
During the first game of the area against Southeast, Duncan overcame a 14-point deficit in the second half to pull within one game of state. During that contest, Hannah Allen went off with 17 points. Leading up to the game, she had been mired in a shooting slump that seemed to affect her overall game and then all of a sudden, she is draining everything that she throws up. By the fourth 3-pointer, boom, goosebumps.
The Lady Demons moved on to take on Western Heights and fell behind 10-0 before Allen went off again. Duncan fought through a back and forth final quarter and forced overtime before falling in a 60-53 loss.
In defeat, they never quit. In that game and during the season. Of Duncan’s 15 losses, seven were by 15 points or more but despite being young, the team held together. A large part of the credit would have to go to McClung, whose faith in the team never wavered.
I doubt there was ever one point in the season that he did not believe the team would go to the state tournament. And outside of the locker room, you would probably be hard-pressed to find someone that shared that opinion.
With four starters and two key players off of the bench returning, it is highly likely that more big games lie in the future for Duncan. And while inspiration usually comes from cheering on the underdog, I can probably get used to finding it from a front-runner.
Congrats, Lady Demons. I am looking forward to more goosebumps next season.
— Michael Pineda is the sports editor for The Duncan Banner. He can be reached at 580-255-5354, Ext. 143, or via e-mail at m.pineda@duncanbanner.com.
