Cash Money and X Marks the Spot
Huge late shots by junior duo lift Jackets past Newcastle, 42-41
COMEBACK SZN –With Kingfisher trailing by four points, Cash Slezickey (3) made a late 3-pointer to pull the team within one point at Newcastle. After a defensive stop, Xavier Ridenour’s driving bucket put the Jackets up by a point as they held on to w
Kingfisher’s expectation of winning played out in dramatic fashion on the basketball court.
Cash Slezickey and Xavier Ridenour hit crucial shots in the game’s final 90 seconds and the team delivered multiple late defensive stops last Tuesday to lift KHS to a 42-41 victory at No. 9 Newcastle.
“Winners find a way to win and our guys made it happen against a really good team,” said Jared Reese after his second-ranked Yellowjackets improved to 6-0 on the season.
Playing in front of a frenzied home crowd, Newcastle led 41-37 with just over 2:00 to play in the game.
The Jackets’ deficit was cut to one point when Slezickey knocked down his third 3-pointer of the game with 1:23 to play.
The Racers spent multiple timeouts on their next possession, but all for naught as Chase Sucharda’s jumper in the late missed the mark.
Sucharda and Jud Birdwell wrestled for the rebound before the ball went out of bounds.
A “jump ball” signal gave the Jackets the ball with 38 seconds to play.
On that possession, Ridenour caught a pass at the left side of the free throw line, drove to the right and kissed a runner off the glass for the go-ahead bucket with 17 seconds left.
“He was fouled, but they didn’t call it,” noted Reese.
After a timeout was called with just over 13 seconds to play, Sucharda dribbled the ball off his leg and into the waiting hands of Slezickey, who was eventually fouled with 4.6 seconds to go.
Slezickey missed the front end of the ensuing one-and-one, giving the Racers one final chance.
A desperation 3-pointer was nowhere near the mark as Kingfisher survived the test.
It didn’t look as though the Jackets would pass that test during the first quarter.
The Jackets had nearly half of their 22 total turnovers and Newcastle added three conventional threepoint plays.
That allowed Newcastle to build a 16-7 lead before Maddox Mecklenburg was fouled on the quarter’s final play.
The junior made all three free throws, a sequence that started a 13-0 run for KHS.
After Newcastle’s blazing start, KHS held the Racers without another point until 1:40 was left in the second quarter. Newcastle had just two points in the second and was also scoreless for a long stretch to start the third quarter.
However, the Jackets were unable to pull away.
Kingfisher scored just 10 points in each of the first three quarters.
The Jackets led 30-23 late in the third quarter, but the Racers used their own 9-2 run to tie the game early in the fourth.
Newcastle had no answer for Caden Kitchens, as he scored at least four points in every quarter.
However, he picked up his fifth foul with 2:46 to play.
At the time, Kitchens’ 17 points accounted for half of Kingfisher’s total.
He also had a team high nine rebounds and three steals.
Ridenour finished with 10 points and also had four assists. Slezickey scored nine.
While the Jackets did have nearly two dozen turnovers, Newcastle, now 5-2 on the season, obliged with 18 of its own.
KHS also held the Racers to 35 percent shooting.
The 41 points was Newcastle’s lowest of the season by 20 points and was 30.6 points below its average.
“I knew something had to give,” Reese said. “They’d been scoring a lot of points, but our guys have been defending well. Our defense was big all night.”