Reagan, Birdwell play big roles in Jackets’ 1st win

In their first two games of the season, the Kingfisher boys saw smaller deficits grow larger as the game wore on.

They didn’t let that happen in Game 3. KHS came back after trailing by as many as 12 Thursday to defeat Woodward 54-50 in the opening round of the Winter Classic in Boomer Fieldhouse.

After building an early six-point lead, Kingfisher’s offense went stagnant as the Boomers flipped the game and led by as many as a dozen points.

The Jackets, 0-2 coming into the night, closed the gap to five by halftime, then staked a five-point lead by the end of the third quarter.

Jake Reagan and Jhett Birdwell played big roles in the turnaround.

Birdwell went 4 of 6 from 3-point range and scored a career-high 17 points.

Reagan also notched a career-high with his 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Almost all of them were needed as Woodward’s Carter Reid had his own career night with 26 points.

His putback in the lane with 1:53 to go gave the Boomers a 49-48 advantage.

Reagan answered on the other end with a three-point play to put the Jackets back on top, 51-49.

Reid’s free throw with 1:29 to play made it a one-point game, but the Boomer guard missed his second attempt and Kasen Blair grabbed the first of two pivotal rebounds down the stretch.

The next one came with just under a minute to play as he grabbed a Coleman Gilles miss and allowed the Jackets to chew more valuable seconds off the clock.

After Reagan made one of two foul shots with 38 seconds left, the Jackets got a stop on the defensive end when Reid was denied in the lane.

Carter Kitchens made it 53-50 with a free throw with 10 seconds to play and Woodward’s attempt to tie it late missed.

Birdwell made one more free throw with 1.4 seconds to go to ice the first win of the season.

The win put Kingfisher into Friday night’s semifinal against top-seeded Weatherford (after press time of this edition; see our Facebook page for results).

The Jackets couldn’t manage a comeback in Tuesday’s home opener, a 68-46 defeat to Bethany.

The Bronchos rode a strong first quarter to an eight-point halftime lead, then extended it to 20 in the third quarter.

Kingfisher had no answer for Aiden Todd as the junior guard scored 26 points. He had 13 in the first quarter as Bethany got out to a 17-9 advantage.

The Jackets were led by Gilles, who scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half.

Matthew Mecklenburg scored 10 and Kitchens finished his night with nine.