Frost, Walker deliver for KHS

There was no fear. There was no panic.

There was only determination.

The payoff on Saturday night was glorious.

Kingfisher’s girls basketball team is making its first appearance in the state tournament since 2009 after Saturday night’s 40-30 win over Woodward in a Class 4A area consolation championship game in Enid’s Stride Bank Center.

The result and its meaning are praiseworthy enough.

However, the Lady Jackets’ road back to the state tournament is legendary.

It not only ended with Woodward, but also started with the Lady Boomers the previous Saturday night in a regional semifinal.

KHS led 15-8 when junior Emily Myers went down with what ultimately was a torn ACL.

The Lady Jackets lost that game 39-38 on their home court, which put them in a nearly-impossible situation: Win five games in a sixday stretch to reach state.

Nearly impossible.

KHS made it through the rest of the regional with wins Monday and Tuesday against John Marshall and Mannford, respectively.

The Lady Jackets returned to the court Thursday and bested Cleveland by 11 points in Enid.

That set up Friday’s matchup with No. 10 Bethany, which KHS defeated by 11 points on Valentine’s Day.

A repeat victory didn’t look good when Kingfisher trailed by six points after a quarter, four at halftime and still by five entering the fourth quarter.

Despite charging back to take the lead, Kingfisher found itself down 38-37 when Lauren Scalice made a pair of free throws with just over 13 seconds left.

With no timeouts left, Kingfisher got the ball into the hands of sophomore Peyton Walker.

She drove the length of the court, made a hesitation move against Kayton Don ley, then sent high off the glass against the 6-foot-1 sophomore.

Walker’s bucket found the bottom of the net with under 4.0 seconds to play.

Bethany’s desperation shot missed after a timeout and Kingfisher celebrated a 39-38 victory.

“She had a refuse-to-lose mentality,” said first-year Kingfisher coach Taylor Young talking about Walker’s season-saving play.

“She is a true competitor. When the game is on the line, I’m glad we have #10 on our side.”

It helped having Rayland Garner as well.

The senior scored 16 points, eight in that fourth quarter charge.

But against Woodward - with a spot at state on the line - it was another senior who rose to the challenge.

Kina Frost saw plenty of playing time as a sophomore, but chose not to play her junior year.

She returned to the Lady Jackets after Young was hired last spring.

She did so as a reserve and was usually the first off the bench for the Lady Jackets.

“It was tough at times,” Frost admitted. “But I also trusted coach and knew she would do what she thought was best for the team to win games.

“It also motivated me when I did go in to play my hardest and try to earn more minutes.”

Young noticed. “The kid just works her

“The kid just works her tail off every single day and she necessarily may not have got the minutes that she wanted at the beginning of the season, but we always counted on her to be able to come in and do her job.”

Frost’s role got considerably larger when Myers got hurt.

She got the starting nod last Monday as Kingfisher began its unlikely trek to state.

“We knew it wasn’t over and we still had a job to finish and it was a next-man-up mentality for us,” Frost said.

She scored two points in the first quarter as Kingfisher took a 6-4 lead.

The scoring pace picked up in the second quarter, but not by much.

KHS outscored the Lady Boomers 10-8 for a 16-12 halftime advantage.

Frost had seven points in the quarter.

Her trademark “Eurostep” move was paying off. Woodward, essentially, couldn’t stop her.

“It’s my favorite move to do,” she said. “Sometimes it just happens naturally when someone is just standing there and I’m driving in.”

She continued to burn Woodward with it in the third quarter.

Frost, who had four of Kingfisher’s six field goals in the first half, had all of them in the second.

She added three more buckets - including a pair of traditional three-point plays - and scored nine more points in the third quarter to help keep Woodward down by three.

Frost’s three field goals were all KHS might have managed in the final two quarters, but Woodward’s aggressive defense had the Lady Jackets in the bonus just under the midway point of the third.

Kingfisher made Woodward pay.

KHS was 8 of 11 from the foul line in the third quarter. Frost made 3 of her 4 attempts.

In the fourth, the Lady Jackets made all 10 attempts.

Garner was 8 for 8 as she finished with 10 points.

Addy Matthews made both of her free throws as part of her five points.

Allison Green - on her 18th birthday no less - scored four points while freshman Kadyn Daugh erty, who saw her minutes increase at area, made her only two free throw tries in the third quarter.

Overall, KHS was 21 of 27 from the line.

Meanwhile, Kingfisher’s defense held Woodward to just three points in the fourth quarter.

Kingfisher was able to dribble out the final 30 seconds of the game.

When the final horn sounded, players hugged players, players hugged coaches and coaches hugged coaches.

They were exhausted, but elated.

“I’m just so proud of how hard these girls have worked.

We lost that one last Saturday and it was a switch in mentality type of thing,” Young said after the game.

“I’m proud of how hard they’ve fought the last week. I told them that all those sprints…all that time we were in the weight room, this is what they were built for. It’s nice to see that come to fruition today.”

Frost led all scorers with 18 points in the biggest win for Kingfisher in years.

She got her opportunity and she responded.

“Injuries are something you can’t control, so it’s sort of a next-man-up mentality for us,” Young said. “I think you saw that today with Makina Frost. I mean, good grief, talk about a senior stepping up in a big game for us.”

Now Kingfisher is at state for the first time since the oldest of the Lady Jackets were in elementary. The underclassmen had yet to start school.

Going into last offseason, reaching state was a known possibility. Young and her staff of Mallory Kusik and Morgan Dutton helped make it reality.

“When I interviewed with Mr. (Jay) Wood, that was the goal for us,” said Young of making state. “Kingfisher girls basketball has been off the map for a while.

“My goal was to bring it back to what it should be and those girls wanted to compete. They just needed someone to kind of light a fire underneath them.”

Frost felt the fire and she helped lead her team to the last weekend of the season.

“It’s honestly the best feeling,” she said. “Being able to be a part of this team and get to experience this for the first time all together is so exciting for me.”