Story By Heath Hambrick
Going into the 2025-26 basketball season, the Plainview Lady Bears had the goal of playing in the final game of the season and winning a state championship. On Friday at the BJCC’s Legacy Arena in Birmingham, the Lady Bears' season came to a heartbreaking conclusion.
Plainview fell to the Good Hope Raiders (29-6) in the Class 4A state championship game, 59-54. For the second time in the last three years, the Lady Bears and head coach Luke Griggs are state runners-up.
“This is a hard moment for us, but we want to give all the glory to God. He has blessed us in so many ways this season. We are proud to be here in this moment, hats off to Good Hope, they are a great team,” said Griggs. “I didn’t do a good enough job of getting the girls ready to play, and that’s on me.”
Good Hope led at the end of each quarter break (15-14, 24-19, 41-32, 59-54).
In the first quarter, the Lady Bears struggled to get any shots to fall as Good Hope jumped out to an early 11-0 lead. At the 4:04 mark in the first quarter, senior Piper Anderson made a three-pointer to get Plainview on the scoreboard. From that point on until the end of the first quarter, Anderson outscored Good Hope 11-4 on her own to cut the lead to a single point, 15-14, as the teams went to the second quarter.
Good Hope opened the second quarter with a 9-0 run to push the lead to double digits, 24-14. After a scoring drought by both teams, Anderson hit another three, and Sawyer Kate Hulgan finally made a basket in the late seconds of the first half to finish a 5-0 run by Plainview and cut the lead to 24-19 at halftime.
The strategy for Good Hope was to limit Hulgan's scoring, and they succeeded, allowing her only two points in the first half. Anderson accounted for 17 of the Lady Bears' 19 points in that half.
Jaxon Bruce cut the Good Hope lead to just two points with a three-pointer to open the second half. After the Raiders extended the lead back to six points, the Lady Bears went on an 8-0 run thanks to baskets from AnnLee Shrader, Hulgan, and Bruce to give Plainview its first lead, 30-28, at the 4:07 mark of the third quarter.
The two teams traded baskets, and after Shrader gave the Lady Bears the lead at 32-30, Good Hope's Ella Davis went on an 11-0 run by herself to end the quarter and give the Raiders a nine-point lead, 41-32, going into the final quarter.
The Lady Bears turned up the pressure and continued to fight to the end as Miley Dukes and Bruce made back-to-back threes to cut the Good Hope lead to just three points, 41-38, early in the fourth quarter.
Every time Plainview cut into the lead, Good Hope had an answer. The Raiders pushed the lead back to eight points, 46-38, midway through the quarter. Hulgan made a three with 4:15 left in the game to cut the lead to five, and Bruce made a big three to get the Lady Bears to within three points. 47-44 with 3:12 left in the game.
In the late moments of the game, Good Hope used the free-throw line to seal the victory. The Lady Bears and Hulgan made one last push as she hit a long three from just past half court with 14.3 seconds left to cut the lead to three, 57-54. That made three proved to be the final made basket of the Plainview season.
Good Hope made two more free throws as Plainview fouled to try to extend the game, but the score was too much to overcome, and the Raiders held off a great comeback from the Lady Bears to take a five-point victory.
Piper Anderson led the way for the Lady Bears with 17 points, Jaxon Bruce had 15 points, and Sawyer Kate Hulgan added 13 points.
Ella Davis for Good Hope had 18 points to lead all scorers.
Piper Anderson, Sawyer Kate Hulgan, and Jaxon Bruce were all named to the all-tournament team.
During the post-game press conference, coach Griggs was asked what this group of young ladies has meant to the Plainview program.
“Our program is based on not singling out one player. We are about one in 15 on our team, we are all the same, and I love every one of them. They all have bought into what we wanted to do. This is a special group of young ladies, and they have meant a lot to our program,” said Griggs. “They all take care of each other, they lift each other, they are a family.”
The season didn’t end the way that the Lady Bears had hoped for, but this group of young ladies never backed down from a fight. They played with toughness, grit, and determination all season, but especially in the state championship game. The accomplishments they achieved this season will cement their place in Plainview history as one of the best teams ever.
The Lady Bears finish the season with a record of 34-3.
