Red Oak celebrates their win over Garber in the Class B State Basketball finals, Saturday, March 7, 2009, at the State Fair Arena in Oklahoma City . PHOTO BY SARAH PHIPPS, THE OKLAHOMAN

The Class A & B teams played their championship games in the state basketball tournament on Saturday at the Big House. Now it is time for the longest week of the year as we prepare to cover the 2A through 6A championships along with the men’s and women’s Big 12 basketball tournaments. It’s going to be all basketball all the time for much of staff. I’ll try to keep this updated throughout the week with photos and some behind the scenes looks at all the tournaments.

Here’s some photos from the A & B finals by Sarah Phipps and Brenda O’Brian. For gallery of even more photos from the games, click here.

Preston’s Maylisa Johnson kisses the championship trophy following the girls Class A State Basketball finals between Preston and Crowder, Saturday, March 7, 2009, at the State Fair Arena in Oklahoma City . PHOTO BY SARAH PHIPPS, THE OKLAHOMAN

Varnum’s Jordan Hamilton, left, and Devin Satawake celebrate their Class B State Basketball championship win over Cyril, Saturday, March 7, 2009, at the State Fair Arena in Oklahoma City . PHOTO BY SARAH PHIPPS, THE OKLAHOMAN

Garber’s Dylan Postier (5) and Red Oak’s Stuart Sullivan (23) jump for a rebound during the boys Class B State Basketball finals between Red Oak and Garber, Saturday, March 7, 2009, at the State Fair Arena in Oklahoma City . PHOTO BY BRENDA O’BRIAN, THE OKLAHOMAN

Cash Overton (3) reacts to Texhoma’s loss to Preston during the boys Class A State Basketball, Saturday, March 7, 2009, at the State Fair Arena in Oklahoma City . PHOTO BY SARAH PHIPPS, THE OKLAHOMAN

Cyril’s Shelbi Stallings and Chelsea Reynolds (20) react to Cyril’s loss after the girls’  Class B State Basketball finals, Saturday, March 7, 2009, at the State Fair Arena in Oklahoma City . PHOTO BY BRENDA O’BRIAN, THE OKLAHOMAN

Preston’s John Paul Yeager kiss the champion trophy following the boys Class A State Basketball finals between Preston and Texhoma, Saturday, March 7, 2009, at the State Fair Arena in Oklahoma City . PHOTO BY BRENDA O’BRIAN, THE OKLAHOMAN

Check out more photos from the games in this photo gallery.

-Nate Billings

Thunder super fans, from left, Zeb Benbrook, Thunder Man, Derrick Seys, and Angela Love pose for a portrait outside the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009. PHOTO BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN

Here’s a little something that I wanted to share with you all from last month. Bryan Terry took photos of super fans of the Oklahoma City Thunder for a Jenni Carlson story. Originally, the editors just wanted to get pictures of the NBA fans cheering at the games. Bryan decided it might make more interesting photos to take portraits of the super fans outside of the Ford Center. He even lit them to give a super-hero quality to the shots.

Check out some of the pictures below, along with a couple of photos showing his lighting set up.

You can see a gallery of all of the photos here.

Thunder super fan Zeb Benbrook poses for a portrait outside the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009. PHOTO BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN

Thunder super fan Derrick Seys poses for a portrait outside the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009. PHOTO BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN

Thunder super fan Thunder Man, who keeps his real identity a secret, poses for a portrait outside the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009. PHOTO BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN

Thunder super fan Angela Love poses for a portrait outside the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009. PHOTO BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN

A wide shot of Thunder Man showing part of the lighting set up.

Here you can see all three lights used in the photo. Our intern, Brenda O’Brian, who assisted Bryan on the shoot, is on the left in the photo. 

To see all the photos, click here.

To read Jenni Carlson’s story, click here.

-Nate Billings