SIX IN A ROW

Before this basketball season began, Kingfisher head basketball coach Jared Reese and his staff were staring at the realization of replacing all five starters from last season’s state championship squad.

Reality then slapped them a bit harder when senior Mason Snider tore his ACL in a preseason scrimmage.

“I really thought he’d possibly be our leading scorer this season,” Reese said.

Fast forward to Saturday at Enid’s Stride Bank Center.

With its entirely new cast, minus a would-be major contributor, not much has changed for Kingfisher.

The Yellowjackets manhandled No. 12 Weatherford 60-35 to win a Class 4A area championship and advance to state for a sixth consecutive year.

KHS enters state as the No. 1 seed and with a 25-1 record.

Did Reese see it coming?

“Losing all five starters and then losing Mason, I would have told you you’re crazy if you said we’d do this,” Reese said.

But Kingfisher did, just like it’s done all season.

“They’re the most coachable kids we’ve ever had and they just play so hard,” Reese said.

And smart. Kingfisher and Weatherford met

Kingfisher and Weatherford met just a few weeks back as the Jackets snapped the Eagles’ 12-game win streak.

“We’ve played them before and they do a really good job of scouting the things we do,” noted Reese. “We’ve got some brilliant kids; they’re just really smart, so we just changed some names on some things and put some new stuff in and I really think it threw them off early and we got a lot of easy points and that got us going.”

Weatherford scored the first four points of the game, but Kingfisher closed the first quarter with a 13-4 run.

Caden Kitchens scored six of those points and didn’t slow down.

He scored 10 more in the second quarter, one that saw Kingfisher go on a 15-0 run to take full command of the game.

Kitchens’ buzzer-beating bucket gave KHS a 35-18 halftime lead.

A lot of Kingfisher’s points were set up by the press. The Jackets forced 17 turnovers in the game and turned them into 19 points.

“The press has been our calling card all year,” Reese said. “You look at our kids, physically, and it’s amazing to think the press is the reason they’re winning the way they are.”

Weatherford quickly cut Kingfisher’s lead to 11 points in the third quarter, but Maddox Mecklenburg rolled in a 3-pointer to stop the Eagles’ hopes.

It was the start of a 14-2 run by KHS as it extended the lead to 22 points.

Three minutes into the fourth quarter, Weatherford coach Derrick Bull waved the white flag by sitting most of his key players (a move that helped pay off as Weatherford beat Douglass on Saturday to advance to state).

It wasn’t long before the Jackets were celebrating their second consecutive area title and fourth since 2017.

The 25-point win saw them shoot 59 percent, score 38 points in the paint and out-rebound the larger Eagles 24-17.

“Honestly, a lot of things we did just worked tonight,” Reese said.

They worked best for Kitchens, who poured in 25 points.

He missed an early 3-pointer, but that was it. Kitchens was 9 of 10 overall and 5 of 5 from the free throw line.

“He scores a lot because he’s the recipient of a lot of our sets, but tonight he went out and scored on his own,” Reese said. “And not only that, he was really good in that press.”

Xavier Ridenour scored 11 points and led the team with eight rebounds and five assists.

Mecklenburg added 10 points, four boards and four assists while Chase Davis scored seven.

That quartet and more have played massive roles in all of Kingfisher’s 25 wins.

“I’ve had some really good teams, but this group as far as how well they respond to coaching…if we say we need to block out well, it’s getting done. It’s not a question mark,” Reese said. “I think they’re the hardest playing group and they might be the best defensive group we’ve ever had to be honest.”