KHS soars past Elks; gets 45th straight win
Stone leads team in points, rebounds, assists in district championship
Kingfisher Yellowjackets vs. Elk City Elks — KINGFISHER JUNIOR Jarret Birdwell soars above a host of Elk City defenders for two of his 12 points during his team’s 78-24 victory in the Class 4A district championship game last Friday. [Photo by Russell Stitt/ www.stitt.smugmug.com]
Perhaps inspired by their girls’ team’s upset of Kingfisher, the Elk City boys were able to play within a couple of possessions of top-ranked Kingfisher for much of the first quarter.
But then the teams had to play the rest of the first quarter.
Then the second. And then the second half.
By the time all that was finished, the Elks had fallen on the wrong side of a lopsided score to KHS for the second time this season.
This time around the final margin was 78-24 in their Class 4A district championship Friday at the APB.
With the win, the Jackets began what they hope is their fourth straight march into the Class 4A state tournament. They’ll continue it at 8 p.m. Thursday when they host Cushing in a regional semifinal.
Cushing knocked off Woodward 69-53 in their district.
Kingfisher finished the first quarter with a 7-2 spurt in the final 2 minutes, which included a Bijan Cortes 3-pointer to end it.
That made way for a second quarter that saw KHS outscore the Elks 26-2 for a 41-8 halftime advantage.
In the second, Matthew Stone and Jarret Birdwell scored six apiece.
And, once again, Cortes ended the quarter with a 3-pointer, which gave him nine points in the quarter.
The Elks found more offense in the third, but couldn’t slow down KHS.
Kingfisher again posted 26 points as it got two 3-pointers each from Cortes and Maverick Ridenour and six points out of Stone.
Stone and Cortes scored 20 points apiece without playing in the fourth quarter.
Stone continued his rebounding dominance with 15 while adding teamhighs with six assists and four steals as well.
Cortes had four rebounds and five assists.
Birdwell had 12 points - 10 in the first half - and five rebounds.
Eleven different KHS players scored as the team improved to 23-0 this season.
Kingfisher has won 45 straight games overall.