Limping, but still in it

With its season hanging in the balance, the Kingfisher girls basketball team’s offense finally found some life.

And now, once again, so does its postseason. The Lady Jackets twice staved off elimination over the weekend by beating Byng and Broken Bow on back-to-back days to claim a 4A regional consolation championship in Blanchard.

That trophy pushed Kingfisher into this week’s area tournament where it will play Mannford at 6 p.m. Thursday in an area consolation quarterfinal at Hennessey’s Eagle Event Center.

The team was put on the brink of elimination with Thursday’s 35-23 upset loss to Plainview, which was its lowest offensive output of the season.

The Lady Jackets were on track Friday to do even worse when they managed six points in the first half against Byng.

Fortunately, Kingfisher’s defense was as effective as its offense was lacking and the Lady Jackets only trailed by a point.

But Byng started the second half with four straight buckets and halfway through the period, Kingfisher’s season appeared to be in peril.

Then life appeared. Raegan Snider and Adlee Friesen knocked down buckets and Addy Matthews - playing just her second game after missing more than two weeks with a sprained ankle - nailed her first 3-pointer of the night.

By the end of the quarter, KHS had tied the game. The Lady Jackets then scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter and later led by six on Matthews’ 3-pointer with 3:45 to go.

Not done, Byng knotted the game at 24-all on back-toback 3-pointers.

Enter Matthews again as the senior nailed her third trey of the fourth quarter and fourth of the game with 2:00 to play, kickstarting another 7-0 KHS run that Byng couldn’t overcome.

She scored 12 points to lead the team while Snider scored 11, nine of them in the fourth quarter.

The Lady Jackets scored nearly as many in that fourth (21) as they did the day before and seven more than they had going into the frame.

That sent Kingfisher into Saturday’s consolation title game against Broken Bow, which got out to a 12-7 lead after a quarter due in part to seven points by Aubrey Hightower.

The sophomore guard was creeping into the high post and creating offense from there.

Kingfisher put an end to that in the second quarter, denying passes into that part of the zone.

Meanwhile, the offense heated up as Matthews made two 3-pointers and Snider another as part of a 15-2 run.

It kept going in the third quarter as KHS went on a 14-4 burst for a 36-18 lead.

Snider led all scorers with 19 points.

Abbie Myers added 11, including seven in the second half after facing firsthalf foul trouble. She also led the team with nine rebounds.

After her big start, Hightower managed just four points the rest of the night, all from the free throw line.

The 10th-ranked Lady Jackets (22-5) need three straight wins at area to advance to state, a feat they have accomplished each of the past two seasons.

Mannford (23-3) is ranked 18th. The Lady Pirates were sent to the area consolation with a 48-32 loss to No. 2 Lincoln Christian in a regional championship game.

That loss snapped a 15game win streak for Mannford.