Tired of teams trying to slow them down, the Kingfisher Yellowjackets have begun pressing the issue of late.

The latest examples were Blanchard and Fairview on back-to-back nights last weekend.

The top-ranked Jackets overcame their slowest start of the season Friday to beat the Lions 72-33 on the road.

They came back Saturday to hammer Fairview from start to finish, 76-39, at the APB.

In both cases, the Yellowjackets used full-court pressure to attempt to pick up the pace of games against teams trying to slow it way down.

“We’ve had some teams trying to slow us down by holding it and being really methodical on offense,” said KHS coach Jared Reese, whose team is 19-1.

“We’d been pressing after free throws all season, but we’ve pressed the whole time against some teams to pick things up.”

The strategy wasn’t as evident in the first quarter at Blanchard when the period ended with the game tied 5-5.

“They kept the ball a lot on offense and we didn’t score on the limited number of possessions we had,” Reese said. “But we started to gain some separation in the second quarter and then even more in the third. It just got worse for them (Blanchard) once we did that.”

Blanchard made three free throws at the end of the second quarter to pull within 28-23.

The Lions, however, would manage just 11 points the rest of the game.

“Our defense was really good all night,” Reese said. “It just took our offense some time to catch up. Our press helped lead to some of that.”

KHS forced 23 turnovers and scored 25 points off of them.

Trey Green paced Kingfisher with 18 points, one of four Jackets in double figures.

Bijan Cortes added 14, including making 3 of his 4 3-point attempts.

Jett Sternberger also nailed three treys and finished with 13 points. He also grabbed a team-high six rebounds.

Jarret Birdwell scored 12 points in just 11 minutes.

Kingfisher shot 53.8 percent from the field, including making 11 of 20 3-pointers.

Green and Reece Lafferty made two 3-pointers apiece.

There was no first-quarter lull against Fairview.

The Jackets led 22-6 after a quarter and 50-15 at the half.

Kingfisher’s pressure helped force 20 turnovers, which turned into 23 points.

Sternberger caught fire in that first half and nailed seven 3-pointers, five in the second quarter alone.

He scored 27 of his game-high 29 points in the first half.

Green scored 19 and handed out a team-high five assists. Cortes scored 10 points.

“We knew they’d try to hold it, so we tried not to let them,” Reese said of the Saturday game. “I don’t know if pressing the whole game is something we’ll use once we go deeper into the playoffs, but it’s good in games like these.

“We got what we wanted out of it.”