After 136 consecutive wins, it took a worldwide pandemic to slow down the Lady Oilers. Central Plains was well on its way toward a seventh-straight state championship after its 93-47 win over Ingalls Thursday evening in round of the Class 1A State Basketball Championships in Dodge City. Less than 90 minutes later, with the final teams still on the court, the Kansas State High School Activities Association announced the tournament and season would end at the conclusion of the quarterfinal round.

“No indication that would happen,” said Central Plains coach Pat Stiles. “I thought when they started the tournament they would definitely finish it. I had heard second hand that the tournament management at Dodge wanted to finish it. I thought there could have been other options, like no spectators since the teams were all there, but when you’re talking about life and death situations it’s hard to argue about decisions people have to make.”

Tournament cancelled

The cancellation of the state tournaments came after a flurry of activity regarding the coronavirus around the state, nation, and world. As death tolls continued to climb around the globe, the NCAA announced Thursday morning it had cancelled its March Madness tournament, and Kansas announced its first virusrelated death Thursday evening.

“I was aware of all the cancellations occurring so I had thought about it a little bit on the bus on the way to the game but it was just another one of those ‘what if ’ thoughts and I didn’t think about it again until after the game,” said Lady Oiler senior Emily Ryan.

“We knew that by losing in the first round would’ve ended our season, I certainly didn’t think this disease, that’s affected so few in Kansas, would be the reason why it ended,” said Addi Crites, another Central Plains senior.

“We were aware about multiple events being canceled so I think in a way a couple of us might have been on edge, but once we got on the bus and headed to Dodge I think we all believed there wouldn’t be a way for the tournament to get canceled, especially since it started and was running smoothly.”

High expectations

Central Plains entered this year’s state tournament riding a 135-game win streak as heavy favorites to extend their historical run with a seventh-straight state championship. They jumped out to a 23-3 lead after one quarter against Ingalls, turning that into a 57-14 lead at the half en route to a 93-47 win. No other team in Thursday’s quarterfinals scored more than 59 points, and unbeaten Cunningham lost its first game in overtime.

Ryan played just over 20 minutes but wrapped up a historical career with 20 points, six steals, five rebounds, and five assists. Just into the second quarter she became the third player in Kansas history to reach 3,000 points for her career. Later in the frame, she dished out her 700th career assist.

Lexi Oeser hit four-straight threes late in the second quarter for all 12 of her points. Kassidy Nixon and Delaney Rugan each added 11 points and four assists, and Nixon also grabbed six rebounds. Crites and Jennah Jeffrey each finished with 10 points, and senior Rachel Lamatsch just missed a double-double with eight points and eight assists. Brynna Hammeke finished with seven points, and senior Zoe Potter scored the other four points.

Coach Stiles had left the building after the game but the girls were still in the arena when the bad news broke.

“My assistant coach, Jim Ryan, was told by our principal, Toby Holmes, and before Jim could tell the girls they had found out through social media,” Stiles said. “They were extremely upset, crushed, disappointed, really can’t put into words what they felt. My seniors didn’t deserve to go out that way. My regret is not being there for them. They have done so much for me.”

“Emily saw the tweet from KSHSAA and started passing her phone around and at first I was in disbelief and shock,” Crites said. “It didn’t hit me until a few minutes later until my sister came over and started to hug me, and after that it was a whirlwind of painful emotions all coming at me at once. I felt absolutely sickened and blindsided.

Still hard to accept

“A couple of very emotional and hard days have passed and it’s still really hard to wrap my head around that I’ll never be able to play with those girls and for Coach Stiles and Ryan again. I’ve played with most of them since third grade and everyone has become family to me and no amount of time would have prepared me to say goodbye to them so unexpectedly.”

Ninety-six basketball teams around the state entered the six state tournaments. With quarterfinal games played, 48 of those teams experienced the natural loss. The other 48, like Central Plains, are left to wonder what could been.

“I thought letting everyone play one game was one of the worst things they could have done because it gave everyone false hope that the tournament and season would finish normally,” Ryan said. “It allowed everyone to get one step closer of achieving the ultimate goal and I think that made it an even tougher pill to swallow.”

The seniors on the 48 remaining teams also left the floor in the unique position of not knowing they had just played their final games.

Beyond grateful

“Throughout this whole situation I have had a roller coaster of thoughts and emotions and the one I keep coming back to is how grateful I am,” Ryan said. “I am so beyond grateful for this team, this school, and this community. Although it didn’t end the way we worked for all season, I couldn’t be more proud to be a small part of the incredible tradition Pat has made.”

Central Plains says goodbye to five decorated seniors in Ryan, Crites, Rugan, Lamatsch, and Potter.

“No way can I put into words what those seniors have done for me and our basketball program,” Stiles said. “They should go down as one of the most dominant teams in Kansas basketball history. They have rewritten the record books. When you put a bunch of kids that are talented in their own right and so unselfish around a dominant player like Emily Ryan, you have the making of a perfect storm. We were playing so well down the stretch, sharing the ball, playing so well together and really defending.

“Their leadership and being such great role models for our younger girls, their legacy will go on years after they graduate. I’m so blessed and fortunate to have been their coach. They are just great people that will achieve bigger and better things in the future than a state championship.”

Looking ahead

Central Plains did not get to extend its title streak to seven, but the Lady Oilers will still take their 136-game win streak into next season. Central Plains also set several records this season. The year the Lady Oilers allowed just 24.5 points a game for the record. This year’s team allowed just 21.2 points a night.

Last year’s team set a new state record with an average margin of 49.2 points a game. This year’s team bumped the record to 57.1 points a night. The 2019-20 Lady Oilers shot an even 59.0 percent from the floor, breaking a 37-year-old record of 58.7 percent. That includes the record of 74.6 percent from the floor in an individual game, set this season against Ness City.

For its part, KSHSAA officials admit it was a difficult decision. Though the state had just four confirmed cases of the virus by Friday evening, it was the death of a elderly man in Wyandotte County Thursday evening that prompted Kansas Governor Laura Kelly to declare a state of emergency.

“KSHSAA had been monitoring the situation for several weeks as this was our sixth championship event in the past five weeks,” said Fran Martin, KSHSAA administrator. “When the tournaments started on Wednesday we had no idea there would be the unprecedented actions taking place in the state, nation and world. Our focus was on providing an exciting state tournament experience for the 96 teams involved in the tournament.

“There are not words to explain how difficult this decision was for the KSHSAA staff and Executive Board. We did not want our tournament to end this way and take no pleasure in the outcome not being decided on the courts. However, student safety and community health will always take top priority.”

The state has crowned at least one basketball champion in each season since 1912, eventually splitting into two classes for the 1925 championships and three classes for the 1940-41 season. Championships were even handed out in 1918, 1919, and 1920 during the Spanish flu pandemic that infected more than one-fourth of the world’s population and killed as many as 50 million, including some 680,000 in the United States.