IN CONTROL — Indian Creek’s Gabby Taylor looks to make a pass during a game earlier this season. Creek looks to defend its OVAC Class 4A title against Oak Glen on Saturday. - Andrew Grimm

For the third time in four years, Indian Creek will take on Oak Glen for the Class 4A championship Saturday night.

Indian Creek has been victorious in the last two championship battles, winning 65-46 a year ago for their second title in three years over the Golden Bears. The Redskins also topped OG 42-26 in the 2023 championship game. Creek also won the Class 5A title in 2020, giving them three titles in the last five seasons.

“We should be pretty familiar with each other now for sure,” Indian Creek head coach Steve Eft said with a laugh. “Our girls have shown their resilience, they’re a tight-knit group. We have gone through a rough patch where we lost a couple of games in a row and the girls have stuck together and gutted it out and turned it around. I was really proud of the way they fought against a really good Edison team on Monday to get here.

“Both teams are coming off of big wins and Oak Glen has won five out of their last six, they’re peaking at the right time, so we know we’re going to have to be locked in and be ready to play on Saturday.”

SHOOTING — Oak Glen’s Haylee Stewart attempts a 3-pointer in a game earlier this season. The Golden Bears meet Indian Creek in the OVAC Class 4A Championship game for a third time in four years on Saturday. - Andrew Grimm

Oak Glen is in the championship game for a fifth-straight year, but still looking to break through and leave with the hardware as they are 0-4 the last four attempts, also with losses to Union Local in 2022 and East Liverpool in 2024.

“It’s kind of funny that we end up playing Indian Creek again because we have a makeup game against them on Monday, too,” Oak Glen head coach Ryan Wells said. “We got each other on the regular season schedule this year and plan on playing in the regular season next year, too. We’re looking forward to it, we’re on a nice little run coming in.

“Our girls compete, most of them have been a part of state championship and OVAC championship runs in other sports at Oak Glen. We knew we were an underdog against Union Local but these girls approach every game the same no matter who we’re playing and compete. Union Local is a great team and you could see the confidence grow in the girls as the night went on, but we weren’t in the locker room for two minutes before their minds switched to Indian Creek when we found out they won.

“We just have to play with consistency and do what we do. We have a game plan that we have been working to implement since Tuesday and our focus is just to do what we do. It’s going to be a matter of which team is consistent and knocking down shots. If we do the little things we have been doing, I think we will give ourselves a good chance.”

Both teams are quite a bit different than a year ago as they lost key pieces to graduation, but both have continued to have success with new faces stepping up and returners moving into bigger roles.

Creek sits at 15-4 coming into the match up having upset second seeded Edison, who had been undefeated, on the road in a thrilling semifinal. Oak Glen (10-5) toppled top-seeded Union Local on the road in the semis. Both teams were the lower seeds when they advanced to last year’s final, as well.

The Redskins feature Class 4A’s leading scorer (Kaydence Walker 20.2 ppg) and rebounder (Riley Sadler 12.1 rpg) as of the last time the OVAC released statistics.

Oak Glen’s Mikalyn Balch, who is averaging 17.6 points per game, also ranked in the top 10 in the class and Haylee Stewart was the second leading rebounder in the conference. She averages 9.9 boards per game to go with 7.6 points.

“The first thing I notice about them this year is they have some players that can really shoot the ball,” Eft said of the Bears. “We watched the Union Local game and they really shot the ball well and they do a nice job of working together to create those shots. We have got to defend the 3-point line and make their shooters uncomfortable.”

While both teams have been there before, both are excited for the big game atmosphere again.

“Both teams have girls that have experienced this before and have played on that court before,” Eft said. “Hopefully the moment is not too big for us and we can settle in early and play our game. Playing in the OVAC and Buckeye 8 tournaments before we get in to the district tournament is great experience because we get to play in big games in a tournament atmosphere.”

Wells compared the ECO Center to a college-like atmosphere.

“The OVAC does such a great job of making this game feel special,” Wells said. “From the facility, to the hospitality when you walk through the door, it’s just a great experience. It feels like going to a college tournament. I travelled with the men’s basketball team when I was at Fairmont and that’s the feeling you get when you walk into those college gyms. For a lot of these girls, it’s the only time they will get to experience something like that, so it’s special.

“Because a lot of them were a part of that game last year, it’s something they’ve experienced before and hopefully will be ready for.”