The King’s Fork High School girls’ basketball team produced a narrow 58-55 victory over host Deep Creek High School on Friday, as the Lady Hornets posed a notable challenge to the Lady Bulldogs and their undefeated record.

“It was unexpected,” King’s Fork coach Maurice Fofana said. “We beat them by 29 last time we played them, so we definitely weren’t looking for a dogfight.”

The Lady Bulldogs found themselves behind at several different points of the game on Friday, including at the beginning. Then they recovered to go up by eight, but Deep Creek responded.

In the fourth quarter, the Lady Hornets grabbed a five-point lead, requiring King’s Fork to show resilience if it was going to improve to 18-0 on the season.

“We went on a pretty good run where we had two steals, and we ended up getting two layups out of it, and Cydney (Nichols) hit a three,” Fofana said.

As Deep Creek maintained a zone defense, the Lady Bulldogs actually held the ball for a good portion of the fourth quarter.

“For the last four minutes of the game, we kept the lead,” Fofana said.

When King’s Fork played the Lady Hornets on Jan. 7 at Deep Creek, the Lady Bulldogs prevailed 79-50. Addressing why his team’s final advantage shrunk from 29 points in that game to three points on Friday, Fofana said, “I think Deep Creek played a lot better, and we didn’t.”

He said he thought his girls reflected on the prior blowout win and figured it was automatic. But when they discovered on Friday that it was not, they ended up showing the character that every great team must have.

“They played pretty good in the final stretch of the game,” Fofana said. “They kind of persevered. They kept focused, they kept playing hard, and things worked out.”

The other reason the coach pointed to for why this game was closer than the first meeting was that the Lady Bulldogs were not necessarily regarded as the top team in the area then, but they are now.

“You’re going to get everybody’s best shot,” Fofana said.

Junior forward Amesha Miller was the difference-maker for King’s Fork on Friday, producing a team-high 19 points to go with 17 rebounds and two blocked shots.

“Deep Creek just had no answer for her,” Fofana said. “She kind of had her way underneath the basket.”

Continuing her string of strong performances, Lady Bulldogs junior guard Cydney Nichols contributed 15 points and five steals, while sophomore point guard Camary Harris added nine points, six assists and six steals.

King’s Fork (18-0, 6-0) visits Woodrow Wilson High School on Monday for a major Conference 17 showdown.