Lady Jackets soar through regional consolation, into area tournament
KINGFISHER YELOWJACKETS vs WOODWARD BOOMERS — ALLY STEPEHNSON attempts a shot while being fouled during Kingfisher’s win over Woodward in the regional consolation championship game Saturday. [Photo by Russell Stitt/ www.stittsmugmug.com]
Gerrett Spears felt confident about his team’s chances of playing another weekend.
His Lady Jackets made it happen.
The Kingfisher High School girls basketball team is back in the area tournament after three straight consolation bracket wins in a 4A regional at home last week.
With the season on the line, KHS knocked out Cushing (story in last weekend’s edition), Clinton and Woodward on consecutive days to advance.
The last of those was a 53-42 triumph Saturday afternoon at the APB.
Kingfisher got on top of Woodward 21-4 in the first quarter then held on in the fourth.
A huge factor in the early surge was five made 3-pointers.
Two of those came from Melody Wilfong while Rayland Garner added another five points.
Woodward woke up offensively in the second, but KHS maintained a 14-point halftime lead.
It grew to as many as 24 points in the second half before the Lady Boomers made one final, frantic push.
They had just one trey through three quarters, but knocked down three in the fourth.
Two of them were from Avery Williams, her only points of the game.
Although Woodward outscored KHS 21-10, the Lady Jackets were never in serious threat of losing their lead.
Although Woodward shot a higher percentage from the field, Kingfisher outscored the Lady Boomers 13-2 at the foul line.
KHS also forced 21 turnovers.
Garner scored 17 points to go along with 10 rebounds. Seven of her boards were on the offensive end.
Jenni Beebi scored 11 and also had five assists.
Wilfong and Britt Taylor scored six apiece. Taylor added eight rebounds.
The Lady Jackets were also dominant early against Clinton, but maintained it for much of the four quarters in a 61-29 victory.
KHS went 10 of 22 from 3-point range and had four players score in double figures.
Allison Green knocked down four of the treys, three of them in the second quarter as KHS used an 18-7 run for a 36-13 halftime lead.
Green led the team with 14 points.
Taylor and Wilfong hit three 3-pointers and scored 11 points each.
Garner scored 12 to go along with five boards and five assists.
Beebe scored all eight of her points during an 18-6 run in the first quarter.
The Lady Jackets take on Oologah at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the area consolation quarterfinal at Stillwater High School.
The winner advances to play the Elk City-Bethany winner at 1:30 p.m. Friday.
KHS enters area with a 17-9 record. Oologah is 18-8 and ranked 14th. It lost 47-39 to Victory Christian in Saturday’s regional final.