JACKETS STILL STREAKING

Newcastle may very well have the talent to contend for a Class 4A boys basketball state championship.

But, at least for one night, it wasn’t quite enough to beat Kingfisher on its home floor.

Thanks to a big run late in the third quarter, the Yellowjackets extended their home win streak to 73 games Tuesday with a 48-41 victory over No. 6 Newcastle.

The Racers entered the game undefeated, averaging 72 points a game and featured the top-ranked sophomore in the state in Carl’Sheon Young.

Young never got on track and his team left town having been held 31 points below its season average and 21 below its previous low output.

“They’ve got a lot of weapons that we were worried about, but we certainly didn’t want him to get rolling,” KHS coach Jared Reese said of Young, who possesses offers from OSU, OU, Kansas, TCU, Arizona State and others.

The combo guard fouled out having scored nine points on 2 of 8 shooting. He also committed six turnovers.

“We did a good job following the game plan and he stayed pretty frustrated,” Reese said.

It was the Racers’ Chase Sucharda who had Reese even more worried entering the game and the senior swingman followed through.

He gave the Racers a 2119 lead - their first and only of the game - with 4:40 remaining in the third quarter.

KHS responded with a 12-1 run capped by Xavier Ridenour’s four-point play with 1:43 to go in the quarter.

It was the exclamation point on a nine-point quarter by Ridenour, who finished his night with 16.

Newcastle’s best shot was to make a run early in the fourth, but Jax Sternberger extinguished that hope with a three-point play a minute into it.

His free throw at 7:07 gave KHS a 33-23 lead that was never truly threatened.

Those were Sternberger’s only points, but his defense, including drawing three charges, was part of a unit that held Newcastle to 34 percent shooting. That included going 2 of 19 (10.5 percent) from 3-point range.

The top-ranked Jackets got out to a 7-0 lead in the highly-anticipated contest, but Newcastle crawled back into it to make it 10-8 midway through the second.

KHS was up 16-12 at halftime before both teams struggled to score for the first half of the third quarter.

Eventually, Newcastle used a 9-1 run to take the lead on Sucharda’s driving bucket.

He fouled out with 3:15 to play with a team-high 12 points.

AfterSternberger’sthreepoint play in the fourth, the Jackets mostly played keepaway and made 11 of 16 foul shots down the stretch.

Cash Slezickey was 5 of 6 in the fourth and scored six overall to go with a teamhigh four assists.

Caden Kitchens made 5 of 6 as well and scored nine of his game-high 17 in the final stanza before he fouled out.

Jud Birdwell added four points and a team-high five boards.

The Jackets moved to 3-0 despite committing 16 turnovers.