FRIESEN HOT
Junior nails 4 treys as Jackets hammer Chisholm in opener
KHS JUNIOR Drake Friesen, pictured during a game last season, made four of Kingfisher’s five 3-pointers during last Friday’s season-opening win at Chisholm. [Photo by Chris Simon/www.simon-sports-photos.smugmug.com]
The starters were all brand new. The result was not.
Kingfisher debuted its “new look” Friday night with a 58-21 thumping of Chisholm at Outhier Fieldhouse.
The Jackets scored the game’s first 16 points, forced 25 turnovers and were never threatened in the road win.
“It was a good start,” coach Jared Reese said. “We did some good things, but there’s also a lot of areas we’re going to have to be better at against stronger teams.”
Chisholm figured to provide KHS little resistance going in. That proved to be the case.
The unknown was Kingfisher itself.
The Jackets graduated all five starters from last year’s state championship squad, so meaningful varsity experience with this team has been limited.
However, this year’s version looked like the teams that won three titles over the last five years did so many times.
Chisholm didn’t score until late in the first quarter and often struggled to set up its offense if it ever made it past half-court.
“Our defensive positioning and effort were great,” Reese said. “Normally when the opponent might not be as good, kids have a tendency to do their own thing and always go for the steal. “We didn’t do that.”
“We didn’t do that.”
Kingfisher’s “team” defense forced the abundance of turnovers and wreaked even more overall havoc.
Chisholm shot just 19.4 percent for the game and attempted only 36 shots.
Three players had at least five steals for the Jackets: Caden Kitchens led the team with six while Xavier Ridenour and Maddox Mecklenburg garnered five each.
The Jackets had another 13 deflections and scored 25 points off the Longhorns’ turnovers.
They led 35-11 at halftime and after a sluggish third quarter, closed the game on a 15-5 run.
“Our execution was really good,” said Reese again.
The shooting, more no tably from beyond the arc, though, wasn’t stellar.
Kingfisher made just five of its 25 3-point attempts.
The starters were a combined 1 of 20.
“I know we’re better than that and we’ll have to be to beat some of the teams we’ve got coming up on our schedule,” Reese said.
One who didn’t struggle from beyond the arc was Drake Friesen.
The junior came off the bench to nail 4 of 7 3-point attempts.
He scored 12 points and was one of three Jackets to reach double figures.
Kitchens led the way with 16 points and also led the team with five rebounds.
Ridenour scored 11 points.
The Jackets had 17 assists against nine turnovers.
Mecklenburg and Jax Sternberger dished four assists each.
Overall, the team shot 42 percent, a number that was bolstered by 32 points in the paint as the Jackets were 16 of 25 (64 percent) from two-point range.