By Chris Parker
Kickapoo is moving on to the Pink Division championship game after beating defending Class 3 state champion Fair Grove 52-44 in the semifinals on Friday.
Neither team could get into much of a rhythm early with four lead changes and three ties through the first quarter. Kickapoo carried a 12-11 lead after the opening frame.
It was much the same through the second quarter until the 1:27 mark of the frame.
Mikayla Pilley knocked down a three to give Kickapoo a 23-21 lead. Just 23 seconds later, Mikayla Smith hit another three to boost Kickapoo’s lead to its largest of the game to that point at 26-21.
The Lady Chiefs never trailed again.
“Getting those back-to-back buckets gave our girls some confidence because we couldn’t seem to get in a rhythm,” Kickapoo head coach Leslie Hanchey said. “(Fair Grove) switched to a zone, and as soon as that zone hit, we got two wide open looks which we didn’t really get for the rest of the game. That was a big booster for us to get back into a rhythm offensively.”
Fair Grove didn’t go away in the third quarter. The Lady Eagles came back to tie the game up at 35-35 with 36 seconds left in the frame.
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Smith scored a bucket with 25 seconds left in the third quarter to stake Kickapoo to a 37-35 lead going into the fourth.
In the fourth quarter, Kickapoo ran its offense with precision and patience.
“We just kept telling the girls to be patient. Keep digging as much as you can and try to get to the rim without forcing too much,” Hanchey said. “Once we got into our spread offense and things started working, we knew they (the officials) were either going to call a foul with the way they were calling it or we would get a wide open look.”
Kickapoo scored 11 of its 15 fourth-quarter points from the free throw line to pull away for the eight-point win. Fair Grove saw two players in Ashton Bell and Brooke Daniels foul out in the quarter after each played much of the fourth quarter with four fouls.
Pilley led all scorers with 18 points for Kickapoo. Smith also scored in double figures with 13 points. Seven different Kickapoo players scored in the game.
“I could not be prouder of our girls. From top to bottom, it was a total team effort,” Hanchey said.
Bell led Fair Grove with 14 points.
Hanchey will be the head coach in a Pink & White championship game for the first time, but she is no stranger to coaching on this stage as she was a longtime assistant in the program before taking over as head coach this season.
“It will be the same in terms of showing up and doing what we do every single day. It is just another game. Don’t make it too high and don’t low. Just come in ready to work like we do every day,” Hanchey said.
Kickapoo faces No. 1 seed Ft. Smith Northside in the Pink Division Championship at 4 pm on Saturday at the O’Reilly Family Events Center on the campus of Drury University.
Kickapoo 52, Fair Grove 44
Fair Grove –
Kickapoo – 12-18-7-15 – 52
F: Ashton Bell 14, Camdyn Hart 8, Emma Padgett 8, Abby Green 7, Hannah Maxwell 6, Brooke Daniels 1
K: Mikayla Pilley 18, Mikayla Smith 13, Raigan Smith 7, Kya Johnson 6, Ari Mosely 5, Allison Scott 2, Josie Salazar 1
