After his Fort Gibson girls basketball team defeated defending state champion Vinita in the Class 4A, Area III championship game and to qualify for the state tournament, coach Jerry Walker asked an interesting question.

“How many teams can lose their second-leading scorer and starting post for three years, not have any height and be right here playing that kind of team?”

Certainly, Fort Gibson’s girls defied any doubters by qualifying for state.

Almost the same can be said about coach Chester Pittman and his Oktaha girls.

Because of its youth with two seniors and two juniors along with four sophomores and four freshmen, Oktaha didn’t figure to be here but here they are, once again among the final eight teams in Class 2A.

“A lot of people didn’t expect us to be here,” sophomore guard Hali Logan said.

While Oktaha had to overcome the lack of experience, Fort Gibson had to deal with the loss of Nana Wallace, a 5-foot-9 junior who also was the leading rebounder. She tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee against Kansas at Oklahoma’s Best in December.

“When we came out of Oklahoma’s Best, our best thinking that we would be a good team but not have much of a chance for state because we lost so many points and rebounds without Nana,” Walker said.

Even the Fort Gibson players were concerned.

“I knew it was going to be tougher to get to state,” senior Carissa Crutchfield said.

That left Walker shifting his team’s focus. What he had on hand was a squad of guards and any possible post players were no taller than 5-foot-6.

“Coach (Chuck) London (assistant coach) got on the Internet and started looking at offenses and I talked to other coaches about offenses for small teams,” Walker said. “We had to do something to make use of our assets and that’s our shooting ability, quickness and speed.”

With senior Kia Lyons and sophomore Julia Hill sharing the post duties, the Lady Tigers lost only once after the Kansas game. They take their 24-2 record to state at 8:30 tonight and their quarterfinal meeting against Weatherford at Oklahoma City University.

Hill said she and her teammates stepped up their defensive pressure in games to compensate for loss of Wallace.

“We knew we had a bunch of people who doubted us,” she said. “We wanted to show everybody that we could do it, be better and not have to rely on a post player for the whole game like other teams have to do.”

Meanwhile, Oktaha (24-3) opens against defending state champion Pawnee at State Fair Arena, also at 8:30 tonight. Pittman knew his team had a tough road entering this season. Making it to state wasn’t the first thing on their minds.

“We were thinking if we made it to the area tournament with this young bunch, it was a pretty lofty goal,” he said. “Somehow, we managed to get past that and that made things even better.”

Logan said she and her teammates overcame its inexperience during the season to qualify for state.

“After hearing so much about saying how young we were, we know we needed to mature in our basketball skills,” she said. “The whole team really stepped up when it came time to play.”

Pittman said there wasn’t really any turning point.

“We didn’t play really well at the start of the season but as the kids played, the better we got,” he said. “As we got to the playoffs, the light started to come on a little. We were playing a lot better.”

Logan agrees that Oktaha’s improvement has continued — and she doesn’t see it ending soon.

“We’re going to state with a solid ball club,” she said. “I know we have the heart. We’re going to keep progressing.”