By Kai Raymer (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The last Ozark Conference girls’ basketball championship will reside with the Kickapoo Lady Chiefs.
Appropriately so.
Kickapoo clinched its 28th all-time Ozark Conference championship on Thursday night with a thrilling 44-37 home win over Rolla.
“We’ve won a lot of games as a team and as a program,” said Kickapoo senior Kya Johnson. “Going out on our home floor as Ozark Conference champs, it’s awesome.”
This year’s Kickapoo squad quietly put together one of the best regular seasons in program history (25-1 overall, 10-0 Ozark Conference).
The Lady Chiefs, ranked No. 3 in Class 6 MBCA rankings, haven’t missed a beat under first-year head coach Leslie Hanchey.
“It’s all about the girls,” said Hanchey, a longtime assistant coach with the program and 2005 KHS alum. “They come in every day and are willing to do whatever we ask of them. What matters is, ‘What can we do for each other?’ They’ve made the job so easy for me.”
Unlike recent Kickapoo teams, these Lady Chiefs are led by guard play. Junior forward Mikayla Pilley is one of the team’s tallest players at 5’10”.
“We move the ball around so well that our height doesn’t really matter,” said Pilley, who scored nine in the win over Rolla. “And we don’t back down from anyone. We can guard girls who are 6’3 or 6’4.”
Kickapoo jumped on top of Rolla (23-3 overall, 9-1) early in Thursday’s matchup of state-ranked teams. The Lady Chiefs led 15-5 after the first quarter.
Kickapoo junior guard Mikayla Smith scored 10 of her team-high 13 in the first half. She finished with three 3-pointers.
“It felt great,” Smith said. “I just knew my teammates trusted me by kicking the ball out to me. Luckily, (the shots) were going in on this big game.”
Said Hanchey: “When she starts to hit the 3, everything gets a little easier for us.”
Johnson’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the second quarter put Kickapoo ahead 28-16 at halftime and had the gym buzzing.
“Tonight felt like one of those postseason atmospheres,” Hanchey said. “The crowd was awesome – that’s one of the best crowds I’ve seen at a girls’ basketball game in a long time. Everyone was pumped.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
Kickapoo led from start to finish, although Rolla (No. 4 in MBCA Class 5 rankings) made things interesting in the final minutes.
Rolla senior guard Willow Gideon scored nine unanswered points in a 90-second span. Kickapoo’s double-digit lead shrank to just two (39-37) with 2:15 remaining.
“We knew Rolla was a great 3-point shooting team and when they made a couple back-to-back, that’s when we got tight and things got loosesy-goosey,” Hanchey said. “We took a timeout there just to remind (the players) to stay calm and keep the course.
“I’m just so proud of the girls. I can’t wait to watch the game film.”
Kickapoo withstood the Rolla surge, thanks to a putback from Pilley and a steal by sophomore guard Josie Salazar that the Lady Chiefs converted into a layup.
Salazar was a defensive menace throughout the night and recorded several steals.
“She does a lot for us,” Hanchey said. “Things you don’t see in the scorebook, Josie will do it for us no matter what.”
Thursday’s contest marked the regular season finale for both teams.
Rolla is the top seed for next week’s Class 5 District 5 Tournament at Union High School. The Lady Bulldogs face Capital City at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the quarterfinal round.
Kickapoo is also the top seed in the Class 6 District 5 Tournament at Glendale High School. The Lady Chiefs face Central at 4 p.m. Wednesday in their first-round district match.
Kickapoo will be seeking its second district title in three seasons. The 2022 Lady Chiefs finished as state runner-up in Class 6.
Five current Lady Chiefs played as sophomores on that squad, including Johnson.
“We’re just as gritty and just as talented as we were a few years ago,” Johnson said. “If we stay together as a team, we have a great shot at going far.”
Kickapoo, along with five other current Ozark Conference schools, will move to the Central Ozark Conference (COC) starting next school year.
Kickapoo 44, Rolla 37
Rolla 5 11 8 13 — 37
Kickapoo 15 13 11 5 — 44
Kickapoo (25-1 overall, 10-0 Ozark Conference) – Mikayla Smith 13, Mikayla Pilley 9, Raigan Smith 7, Ari Mosley 6, Kya Johnson 5, Allison Scott 2, Josie Salazar 2
Rolla (23-3 overall, 9-1 Ozark Conference) – Willow Gideon 15, Rylee Dodson 7, Akaela Caquelin 6, Resa Martin 5, Brooke Bleckman 4
