They did it.
The Nocona Lady Indians knocked at the door of a state championship one more time and won the 2A Division I state title on Feb. 27 at the Alamodome.
After losing at the buzzer in the title game the previous year, the Lady Indians instead dominated for three quarters against San Saba to easily win 54-37.
Nocona had been through the ringer its previous two games playing teams with strong post players, beating Muenster in the regional final in double overtime and upsetting second ranked Panhandle in the state semifinal.
Just surviving those games had the Lady Indians as prepared as they could be, having stared elimination in the face in both of those games before overcoming.
Nocona was favored coming into the game, ranked eighth overall in 2A in the last regular season poll while San Saba was ranked 14th.
The Lady Dillos had not been challenged all playoff run, but had only faced one team ranked in the top 25 in the state on their way to the championship game.
Most importantly for the Lady Indians, San Saba did not feature any players with real size or post up games like they had struggled to contain. The Lady Dillos instead relied on their full-court pressure defense to create turnovers and create scoring opportunities in transition while relying on a trio of senior players with a lot of experience.
If Nocona could keep the game played at the pace it wanted and not let San Saba’a pressure let the game get too chaotic, it would favor the Lady Indians.
The first quarter was ugly offensively for both teams. Nocona saw guard Meg Meekins continuously drive into the paint, but her finishes were just slightly off. Besides her getting fed on a cut by Reagan Phipps for a basket and Meekins finding Jasmine Olivares open for a layup, the Lady Indians offense was not able to make the open shots they were getting.
On the other side, Nocona’s defense was man-to-man, with the emphasis on bringing a double-team when the ball entered the lane on either a drive or post up. This left San Saba opting to fire away from 3-point range, with late contests coming from the Lady Indian defenders and the Lady Dillos just not finding any success.
The lack of offense from San Saba meant it was not able to set up its press defense like it wanted besides initially trying to deny Meekins the ball. She used this tactic against the Lady Dillos in the waning seconds, leaving her defender in the dust on the inbounds play and racing up the floor before casually banking in a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
It gave Nocona a 7-5 lead after the first quarter.
San Saba came out in the second quarter more determined to set up a full-court press. The Lady Indians initially tried to aggressively attack it by sending passes over the top, but it did result in one turnover out of bounds and Nocona was still in a rut offensively.
Then Meekins, who was so far out her foot was on the UIL logo, decided to launch a 3-pointer that went through the net to give Nocona back the lead 10-9 midway through the second quarter and the Lady Indians were off.
The next possession, Nocona was passing the ball around and Aubree Kleinhans, catching it on the other side but almost as far out as Meekins, launched a 3-pointer that went in and the Lady Indians were now up 13-9.
San Saba answered with a basket following an offensive rebound to make it 13-11, but then it was all Nocona until halftime.
Meekins made another 3-pointer, this one from the corner she somehow banked in. Phipps made a mid-range shot following a mad scramble for the ball. Meekins then did one of her patented spins in the lane followed by a tough floater.
Nocona led 20-11 at halftime, but it felt like a bigger lead.
San Saba had gone 0-9 from 3-point range in the first half. The Lady Dillos tried to set up their top scorer, Cinzlea Stanton, in the post since she had a few inches on Meekins. Every time she caught the ball a double-team had come which limited her effectiveness to three points.
The second half saw the Lady Indians pick up where they left off. Meekins hit another floater in the lane and deep 3-pointer. Bayler Smith made an open 3-pointer before forcing a turnover on defense.
Nocona was up 30-12 midway through the third quarter and things were looking like the Lady Indians were the better team and was going to continue pulling away.
San Saba then got a push from Stanton until the end of the quarter. She scored 12 points in the next four minutes, including a deep 3-pointer of her own, the first made shot from distance for her team.
This allowed the Lady Dillos to show some life though they were still down double-digits 35-24 heading into the fourth quarter.
San Saba continued that momentum to start the fourth quarter. The team got a 3-pointer to go through from Chassidy Gonzales. Then a block on defense led to a transition basket from Olivia Sebastian.
The 18-point lead was now down to six points, with the Lady Dillos trailing 35-29 with almost the rest of the fourth quarter to play. It could have gone bad if momentum had stayed on San Saba’s side, but instead Nocona had an immediate answer.
Kleinhans knocked in an open corner 3-pointer 30 seconds later to give the Lady Indians some room. The Lady Dillos threw the ball out of bounds on their next possession. Nocona then scored as Meekins cut the basket for another floater.
The Lady Indian defense then made something happen as Kleinhans jumped a passing lane before passing the ball up to Meekins for an uncontested layup.
Nocona was now up 42-29 and San Saba had to take a timeout. A literal minute of game time had seen the Lady Indians go on a 7-0 run, taking all of the momentum the Lady Dillos had been playing with since the middle of the third quarter.
From there, it was a slow march to the end of the game.
San Saba tried to bring its press to force the action and not allow Nocona to passively run the clock. Unfortunately for the Lady Dillos, their players could not stay in front of Meekins, who broke the press by herself several times leading to layups for her teammates and an open 3-pointer for her.
San Saba made one more 3-pointer as a team, but just could not score enough to come back from double-digits while the Lady Indians lead grew and grew.
With 20 seconds left, Meekins dribbled the ball up the court and it was clear the Lady Dillos were not going to pressure her to give up the ball. The realization on all of Nocona’s players faces on the court seemed to hit at once. The stoic Meekins spiked the ball in celebration as the Lady Indians rushed on the court in celebration. While the team had shared more frantic and emotional celebrations following wins in the previous week, this one was the sweetest.
Nocona won 54-37.

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For more photos from the game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6873406&T=1