Eyes on the prize

They found a way.

Taylor Young knows that’s all that matters.

Kingfisher won the girls championship of the Buckle of the Wheatbelt Invitational on Saturday by escaping Weatherford with a 46-45 victory in the championship game.

The Lady Eagles’ Marley Teasley had a chance to tie the game with a pair of free throws with one second left, but missed the first.

After making the second, Kingfisher was able to inbound the ball and let the final buzzer sound.

That gave the Lady Jackets their fifth straight Buckle championship with the last three coming against Weatherford in the championship.

KHS won 40-35 in 2023 and 47-32 last year after losing to the Lady Eagles in both the 2019 and 2020 title games (Weatherford didn’t play in the tournament in 2021 and 2022).

Ranked fifth in Class 4A, Kingfisher won despite trailing at halftime and nearly blowing a four-point lead in the final seconds.

The game was tied before Abbie Myers’ bucket put Kingfisher up 43-41 with 2:00 to play.

Myers then extended the lead to 45-41 with a pair of free throws with 21 seconds to play.

Teasley gave her team a chance by knocking down a 3-pointer 10 seconds later, cutting the Kingfisher lead to one point.

Kingfisher got the ball in to Raegan Snider, who was quickly fouled.

The KHS senior made 1 of 2 free throws with 10.8 seconds on the clock, setting up the frantic final seconds.

Weatherford grabbed the missed second free throw and pushed it down to Braelee Epp in the corner.

Epp made three previous treys and sent up the potential game winner, but it missed its mark.

The teams fought for the rebound before the ball made its way to Teasley, who got off a shot and was fouled as the buzzer sounded.

Her shot missed, but she was given the two free throws and 1.0 second was put on the clock.

But Teasley missed the initial offering, all but securing Kingfisher’s victory.

Teasley led Weatherford with 16 points, half of them in the fourth quarter.

Epp scored 13 for Weatherford, which entered the night ranked 17th in Class 4A.

The Lady Eagles led for a good portion of the night, including 12-8 at the end of the first quarter.

Epp knocked down a 3-pointer to end the half to put her team up 23-20 at the break.

Weatherford led 32-31 late in the third quarter before Reese Roof - who was wearing a Lady Eagle uniform in this game the last two years - returned the favor with a buzzer- beating 3-pointer.

That was Roof’s second 3-pointer of the quarter and third of the game and gave her current team a two-point lead over her former one.

It was a one-point lead with 5:35 left when sophomore Maya Haney made her second 3-pointer of the game.

A few moments later, Abbie Myers grabbed a defensive rebound and scored on the opposite end to make it 41-35 with 5:00 to play.

Weatherford answered with a 5-0 run over the next three minutes before Myers’ jumper in the lane pushed the lead back to four.

The junior scored 15 points to lead KHS. Haney had eight off the bench.

“Abbie is starting to come along and I thought Maya provided valuable minutes for us off the bench and was a huge spark plug,” Young said.

Snider and Roof scored nine apiece.

Kingfisher’s deficit at halftime was its second in as many nights.

The Lady Jackets’ offense stalled in the second quarter against Woodward before finally waking up in a 46-27 semifinal victory.

Up 12-7 after a quarter, Kingfisher gave up a 10-0 run to start the second and was outscored 10-2 in the frame to fall behind 17-14.

Kingfisher made no 3-pointers in the first half and its woes continued early into the third quarter as the Lady Boomers built a 20-14 lead.

Mattie Slezickey finally put an end to the drought and it opened up the flood gates.

Adlee Friesen, Haney and Ela Hartman each followed with a 3-pointer in the third as Kingfisher went on an 18-4 run to close the quarter.

Roof finally saw the lid come off the rim with her shots and the junior sank two more treys in the fourth quarter.

Kingfisher didn’t give up a field goal in the fourth and outscored Woodward 14-3.

Myers was again the leading scorer with 13 points.

Roof scored eight while Haney added seven.

Snider scored just two, but led the team with nine rebounds and five assists.

The victories pushed Kingfisher to 14-3 on the season.

“I was really proud of how the girls just found a way to win,” Young said. “They didn’t play their best basketball, but it’s nice to be able to say that and still win four games last week.”