Slatey Jo Free ends her basketball career at Howe as a state champion

Several weeks since her team won a state basketball championship, Slatey Jo Free remains awestruck. Free, a senior at Howe, was a key part to the Lady Lions winning the Oklahoma Class 2A state title, defeating Vanoss, 50-42, in Oklahoma City on March 14.

It was the program’s first title since 2021, and the seventh overall – five of which have come since 2004, all under coach Chris Brown.

“It’s always like unbelievable, like right now, I still can’t believe that we finally did it,” Free said. “Like it’s always been a big dream of mine, and to finally accomplish that, they’re all like work through the years that people don’t even see, and you don’t even realize how much tough times you put your body through and yourself through. And then when you finally get what you’ve been working for, it’s still like unreal. Like the feeling is unreal. That Saturday was like, I can’t even like explain it. It felt amazing and it still does.”

As a freshman, Free and Howe reached the title game before falling to Dale. The Lady Lions returned to the state tournament each of her next two years, but were eliminated before the championship game. So entering her final state tourney, Free felt that proverbial sense of urgency.

“That first game (at state, a quarterfinal win against Riverside) was probably the worst. … I was nervous, but once we got into it and after that game, then I was just like, this is our time,” Free said. “I just felt like the whole time I was there, I was like, this is our time for something.”

In the title game, the Lady Lions jumped out to a huge lead and held off a late Vanoss rally. And finally, Free was able to join the list of legendary Howe players that got to hoist a gold ball.

“Mainly my teammates (were a huge help), and the culture where it comes from Coach Brown and Shawn (Womack), who is our assistant, then the confidence that we had in each other,” Free said. “You could just feel it, like we knew what we were doing this for each other and we depended on each other and we held each other to a high standard.”

Free finished her senior season as the team’s leading scorer, averaging 14 points per game. She also averaged 3.4 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 3.3 steals. Her season-high in points came in the opening game, finishing with 22 despite a loss to Red Oak, which ended up winning the Class B-I championship. Free hit double figures in 27 of the Lady Lions’ games.

“As a freshman, the seniors that I had, they were amazing to me and they really helped me to be the leader that I was growing up the rest of the years without them,” Free said. “And so just making that moment just made it feel so much more special, just everything behind the scenes that made it so much more special.

“My mom (Shelly), she’s one of the biggest parts of it. I would have never been where I am without her, either. And my biggest supporter always, so winning that too, I know she felt like she was a state champ.”

In the three state tournament wins, Free scored a combined 40 points, 17 of those in the semifinal triumph against Fairview.

“My best game; honestly, I have to go with the Fairview game,” she said. “It was probably the best because facing all that adversity and then I had some pretty big shots at the end and Josey (Peterson, a fellow senior) had big shots at the end.”

Free may be finished with her basketball career at Howe, but she’s going to keep playing. She has signed to play next season at Southeastern Oklahoma State in Durant.

“They made it really special for me and just deep down, like I kind of knew, honestly, I’ll probably end up going here,” Free said. “The head coach, (Darin) Grover, he reminded me a lot of Coach Brown and what he does in his program and stuff and that’s what really gave it away. … Just this whole program and how he runs it, I just fell in love with it.”