Jackets pushed by red-hot Cyclones in Edmond opener

The Kingfisherboysbasketball team was supposed to be off this weekend.

But this is 2020 and nothing is going the way it’s supposed to.

The Jackets found out late last Tuesday morning that the Tournament of Champions they were slated to play in later this month had been canceled.

Within two hours, KHS Athletic Director Jay Wood and head coach Jared Reese had secured the Jackets a spot in the Edmond Open.

“We need to play some really good teams,” Reese said. “This is a tournament, top to bottom, that’s even better than the Tournament of Champions.”

If Thursday night’s opener was any indication, Reese was spot on.

The Jackets turned back Casady 71-59 at Edmond Memorial High School to advance to Friday’s semifinal.

There the Jackets were set to take on Class 6A’s No. 3 Edmond North (after press time). Depending on the outcomes of the semifinals, the Jackets played either 6A No. 1 Edmond Memorial or No. 13 Santa Fe, which upset No. 7 Broken Arrow in their quarterfinal.

“That was a battle,” Reese said after the win over the Cyclones. “We know we’re going to get teams’ best shot and they gave it to us.”

He meant long-range shot in Casady’s case.

The Cyclones were an eye-popping 9 of 10 from 3-point range in the first half when they led by as many as seven points.

That 2 7-20 advantage came at the 3:50 mark of the second quarter when Pj. Michelle-Johnson-made his fourth trey of the half.

He nailed another at the 2:26 mark to give the Cyclones a 32-25 edge.

Enter Bijan Cortes.

Kingfisher’s senior answered with seven straight points to tie the game and, after the Cyclones briefly took a two-point lead, Maverick Ridenour drained a 3-pointer with time running out in the second quarter for a 35-34 Kingfisher advantage.

“I wasn’t upset that they were making so many 3-pointers,” Reese said. “It was more about the fact we were missing so many easy shots...shots we normally make.”

The Jackets were just 8 of 23 inside the 3-point in the first half, many of those in the paint.

“That’s just not something you see us do often,” Reese said.

It improved in the second half, but so did Kingfisher’s aim from the outside.

Ridenour carried over his momentum with three treys in the second half.

He and Maddox Mecklenburg made 3-pointers as part of an 8-0 run to give the Jackets a 54-41 lead with 1:42 to go in the third.

Casady gave one last push. The Cyclones ended the quarter on an 8-0 spurt then opened the fourth with an alley-oop to pull within 54-51.

But Casady eventually ran out of gas.

The Cyclones cooled down to shoot just 3 of 7 from long range over the final 16 minutes.

Ridenour, however, made two fourth-quarter treys and Ian Daugherty a long two-pointer as Kingfisher’s lead swelled.

Michelle-Johnson ended his night with 25 points, but had just eight in the second half and none in the fourth quarter.

The Cyclones also got 10 points from Neil Luhat

Cortes powered the Jackets through the second and third quarters where he scored 22 of his game-high 26 points.

Ridenour scored 18 points - all on 3-pointers while Jarret Birdwell and Matthew Stone scored 10 apiece.

Birdwell got KHS (4-0) going early with six points in the first quarter.