KHS grabs pair of road wins at Elk City

A two-game win streak and a winning record grace the Christmas stockings of the Kingfisher girls basketball team.

The Lady Jackets outscored Elk City in each quarter last Friday night to earn a 55-41 road win to close out their pre-holiday schedule.

KHS goes into the break with a 3-2 record.

It won despite Elk City having a better shooting percentage on the night (45.2 percent to 41.7).

However, the Lady Jackets turned it over just 10 times and outscored Elk City 21-9 from beyond the arc.

“It was just a deliberate game plan,” said coach Gerrett Spears.

KHS was patient on offense, trying to force Elk City into a man-to-man defense.

After a plodding first quarter, the Lady Jackets broke the game open with a 17-7 run in the second.

That run was spurred by Britt Taylor’s trio of 3-pointers.

Elk City never recovered.

KHS methodically pulled away, turning those Elk City turnovers into 11 points while allowing just five points off its own miscues.

Kingfisher also outscored the Lady Elks 26-10 in the paint while winning the rebounding battle by seven.

Taylor scored 11 points and also had three assists for KHS.

The team was led by Jenni Beebe’s 14 points and nine rebounds.

Rayland Garner chipped in nine points and six boards.

Melody Wilfong scored seven while Allison Green scored five points and had a team-high fi ve assists.

Jackets’ early surge

dominates Elk City

Elk City held on to its bleak hope of upsetting the Kingfisher boys basketball team for a total of about three minutes last Friday night.

Those hopes were then crushed by the Yellowjackets.

KHS used a series of bursts in their fi nal game before the Christmas break to defeat Elk City 87-47 on the road.

The top-ranked, defending state champs are now 5-0.

Elk City got a long 3-pointer to go up 5-4 with just over three minutes gone in the fi rst quarter.

Kingfisher’s offense, slow to get out of the gates at that point, apparently got a wake-up call.

Harrison Themer quickly answered with a 3-pointer on the opposite end to give KHS a lead it wouldn’t come close to losing again.

Themer’s trey started a quick 8-0 and by the time Elk City called a timeout with 2:35 to go in the quarter, the Jackets had racked up a 22-8 advantage.

The game continued on that trajectory.

Kingfisher’s defense stymied Elk City on one end and translated that into easy offense.

The Elks shot 35 percent and committed 19 turnovers.

KHS turned those miscues into 28 points.

The Jackets were up 44-21 at halftime and 67-34 after three quarters.

Five Jackets reached double figures, paced by Bijan Cortes with 20. He added eight assists and had three of the team’s 10 steals.

Matthew Stone produced another double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds to go with four assists.

Maverick Ridenour threw in 11 points while Jarret Birdwell scored 10 to go with his six boards.

Cade Stephenson produced 10 points off the bench.

The Jackets had 20 assists (five from Aryan Haro) against just nine turnovers.

And while they weren’t spectacular from 3-point range, the Jackets were productive.

The team, outside of Cortes, has struggled to knock down the long-range shot but was 10 of 30 against the Elks.

Themer, Ridenour and Stephenson made two apiece.