The Pocola (Okla.) Indians have progressively improved over the past three seasons to playing for a state championship last weekend.
Unfortunately, that's where they ran into Class 2A juggernaut Dale (Okla.), which rolled to its third-straight state title with a 63-38 win over Pocola before a packed house at State Fair Arena in Oklahoma City.
Dale (30-2) was led by one of the top players in Oklahoma, Dayton Forsythe, who has signed with the Oklahoma Sooners and scored 36 points in the championship game.
"Forsythe is a really strong player," Pocola Coach Derek Barlow said. "We had trouble stopping him."
Pocola (28-2) fell behind, 14-7, after a quarter but trailed just 25-20 at the half after a two-point advantage in the second quarter.
"I told them at halftime it was probably our worst half of the year, and we're only down five to a really good team," Barlow said. "The second half, we just didn't come back and make things work like we needed them to work."
Dale held Pocola to just five points in the third quarter and then scored 22 in the final quarter to salt away the win.
Pocola faced Dale in the semifinals last year and lost, 50-33.
"We weren't happy with our effort against them last year," Barlow said. "I think that's just the way Dale has built that reputation by playing hard games. As much as we said going in that it's not a factor, and I believe with all my heart our kids wanted to play Dale. We spent a year wanting to play them. When that time came, we didn't really step up like I hoped we would. That's on us to figure out to prevent that from happening again. In the process, you do have to give Dale a lot of credit. They're strong. They're physical. They play smart. They've earned that reputation. With that comes a little bit of respect. I don't think we were intimidated. A big part of it is playing in front of a big crowd at the Big House and just the weight of all of that."
Pocola went through the regular season undefeated and played Idabel, which won the Class 3A state championship last weekend, losing in a nonconference game at the end of the regular season before starting district play.
"That helped us a little bit," Barlow said. "We don't get a chance to play teams like that. Going into the tournament, we had played six ranked teams. Dale had played 17 or 18 ranked teams. That's a big difference."
Dale, which is 92-4 over the past three seasons, spent Thanksgiving week playing in the Kevin Brown Memorial Tournament of Champions near Chicago, which is regarded as the No. 1 high school boys Thanksgiving tournament in the nation. One of two losses were in the tournament, 72-63, to Hoover. The other loss was to Class 6A Owasso, 60-57, in the Oklahoma Tournament of Champions during Christmas.
"They went to Chicago over Thanksgiving and played four games," Barlow said. "It's one of the best tournaments in the country. That's how you do it. That's the type program they are and the type of program we want to be."
Pocola made its third straight appearance in the state tournament, which is limited to the top eight teams in each classification that play their way through district, regional and area tournaments.
"It's been really good," Barlow said. "That first year, we were just trying to score 30-something. That was our goal. We knew if we could get close to 40 we could win. They bought in. They did it to the best of their ability. Since that time, we've got more guys with some skills. We developed some skills from what we had. It's been more fun from an offensive standpoint. The guys just kept working hard every day and did a lot of pride in what they did. This is the result; three state tournaments in a row. In Oklahoma, that's a difficult thing to do."
OKLAHOMA CLASS 2A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
At State Fair Arena, Oklahoma City
DALE 63, POCOLA 38
Pocola^7^13^5^13^--^38
Dale^14^11^16^22^--^63
Pocola (28-2): Scott 17, Terrell 10, A.Hardwick 6, B.Hardwick 5.
Dale (30-2): Forsythe 36, Jones 8, Denton-Forsythe 6, Higdon 5, Edmondson 4, Chambers 4.