Lady Jackets stun No. 3 Anadarko

As far as the regular season goes, last Friday night may very well have been the biggest win of the Taylor Young era.

Kingfisher stunned Class 4A’s third-ranked Anadarko 38-34 to reintroduce itself as a serious player in the class.

The loss was just the second of the season for Anadarko and it came on the Lady Warriors’ home court…and on homecoming night.

The Lady Jackets rode a hot start to an early lead they never lost, then held on in the waning moments to improve to 8-4 on the season.

It was the Lady Jackets’ eighth game against a ranked foe, but their first win over a top-five team this year.

KHS has losses to 4A No. 1 Bethany and No. 7 Tuttle as well as Class 3A’s fourth-ranked Jones.

“It helps,” said Young on the big win being a confi dence builder for a team that starts three underclassmen and brings two freshmen off the bench.

“But at the same time, it’s more about getting our team to peak at the right time going into the last stretch of the regular season and then into the playoffs.”

Peaking means several team members contributing “In big games, you have to have players make winning plays,” Young said.

And that’s exactly what she got in Anadarko.

The first quarter saw KHS lead by as many as 11 when Addy Matthews put the Lady Jackets up 18-7.

Despite only scoring two points in the quarter, junior post player Raegan Snider was a big key.

“Raegan’s ability to draw double teams in the post helped get our offense going early,” Young said.

Matthews scored six of those early points, but it was Peyton Walker who was the big spark.

The point guard played the role of shooting guard when it came to scoring and delivered 10 first-quarter points.

The scoring slowed in the second quarter - and the rest of the game - but Kingfisher’s defense never wavered.

The team had six steals in the first quarter and at least two steals in each of the final three frames.

KHS forced 18 turnovers and scored 24 points off of them while holding the home team to 39 percent shooting.

The Lady Jackets staked a 25-14 halftime lead, then held strong to start the third.

Talor Mecklenburg’s 3-pointer at the 6:30 mark pushed KHS to a 30-16 advantage.

Anadarko went on a 7-0 run, but Matthews stepped up with a huge 3-pointer to slow the surge.

Walker’stwofreethrows with 1:38 left in the third put Kingfisher up 35-23.

Kingfisher’s scoring came to a halt for more than a quarter.

Then offense stalled out in the fourth, due mostly to conservation mode as Anadarko still struggled to close the gap.

The Lady Warriors finally got within a possession - 35-32 - with 1:23 to play.

They got the ball back and had a chance to pull within one or even tie it up.

That’s when Mecklenburg stepped up with the biggest defensive play of the fourth.

Anadarko’s Ivory Miller grabbed a missed shot and attempted to get it out to Brianna Johnson, but Mecklenburg swiped the ball away, dove on the floor and passed it to Adlee Friesen.

That came with 33 seconds remaining and Kingfisher was able to chew nearly 17 more seconds off the clock.

Anadarko finally fouled Matthews with just over 16 seconds left.

Her free throws were Kingfisher’s first points of the quarter and extended the lead to five points.

Miller missed two free throws with 8 seconds left, but Ashlyn Jackson got the rebound and putback to get the game to 37-34 with 7 seconds to play.

If Kingfisher did struggle in an area, it was giving up offensive rebounds. Anadarko had 11 of them and scored 13 second-chance points.

After a timeout, Kingfi sher got the ball into Snider, who made one of her two free throws with 3.0 seconds remaining to seal Kingfisher’s upset victory.

Snider scored five points and also had three assists.

Matthews was 3 of 6 from 3-point range to score her 14 points.

She added two rebounds and three steals.

“Everyone knows Addy can score the ball in bunches, but her defensive effort and rebounding were huge,” Young said.

Walker also scored 14 points on 5 of 7 shooting overall.

On top of handling the ball against Anadarko’s relentless pressure, she was also a thorn in the Lady Warriors’ side with eight steals.

“Peyton was a difference maker on both ends of the floor,” Young said.

Miller scored 14 on 6 of 10 shooting, but the rest of the team was just 7 of 23 from the field.

Young said the efforts of all the Lady Jackets, including Mecklenburg’s big defensive play, were huge factors.

“It was just a full team effort,” she said.