KHS girls settle for 2nd again

Kingfisher had one near-miraculous comeback in its arsenal.

It didn’t have two.

The Lady Jackets settled for second place at the Wheat Capital Tournament for the second year in a row as they were downed 5341 by Perry in the championship game.

It was Kingfisher’s first loss of the season as it dropped to 9-1.

The first loss appeared imminent in Friday’s semifinal against Garber when the Lady Jackets toted a 14-point deficit into the fourth quarter.

But unrelenting pressure and - finally - shots falling got the Lady Jackets back in it and eventually Ally Stephenson provided the heroics.

Kingfisher’s pressure led the massive comeback and Kingfisher even took a brief lead on Britt Taylor’s 3-pointer with just over 2:00 to play.

Garber was able to tie it up with a free throw at the 2:04 mark before KHS chewed up much of the rest of regulation.

Allison Green’s wouldbe game-winner was off the mark as was Garber’s lastditch attempt and the teams headed to overtime.

Taylor nailed a pair of free throws with 18 seconds left in OT for a threepoint Kingfisher lead, but Garber’s Ashlan Light answered with a game-tying shot eight seconds later.

Kingfisher called a timeout with 3.6 seconds left and on the inbound play got it to Green in the corner for another look.

Her shot missed again, but this time Stephenson was there with the offensive rebound and putback as time expired.

Stephenson scored 18 points and had six rebounds, four of them on the offensive end.

Green added 13 and Taylor 11.

The championship started playing out the same way as Perry used a big push at the end of the third quarter to build a 16-point lead.

That came after a KHS turnover with 1:00 to playthat led to an Atlanta Ward layup.

But a 3-pointer, grabbed a steal and set up an Addy Matthews trey and, within seconds, Kingfisher’s deficit was down to 10 points.

To add to the momentum, Peyton Walker stole the inbounds pass and, after a timeout, Matthews hit another long shot that was eventually deemed a two-pointer, but KHS still had its deficit to

The momentum ended there.

Perry settled down, handled Kingfisher’s press in the fourth quarter and in front.

Kingfisher led much of the first quarter and was up 14-11 early in the second.

That’s when Perry made the game’s biggest move, switching from a man-toman defense to a zone.

“When they went into the zone, we didn’t make shots,” KHS coach Gerrett Spears noted. “We were a little deflated because of that.”

Kingfisher made just 29 percent of its shots, which included 8 of 22 inside the 3-point line. Perry shot 44 percent, including outscoring Kingfisher 36-10 in the paint.

Spears doesn’t deny Friday’s game played a role Saturday. Althoughboth teams played overtime semifinals, the Lady Jackets had to expend a lot of energy in their

“I think it was visible we were exhausted from having to press Garber Friday,” he said. “And I do think that played a factor after we got down Saturday.”

Stephenson, who was named to the all-tournament team, scored 11 points, as did Emily Myers.

Mya Dewberry scored nine points. Green was held scoreless in the championship, but was still voted to the all-tournament team.