KF girls fall into three-way tie

Published 9:50 pm Wednesday, February 10, 2016

King’s Fork High School junior forward Amesha Miller looks for one of her 20 points at the line on Tuesday against visiting Woodrow Wilson High School. The Lady Presidents handed the Lady Bulldogs their second straight loss, forcing a playoff to determine the No. 1 team in the conference. (Caroline LaMagna photo)

King’s Fork High School junior forward Amesha Miller looks for one of her 20 points at the line on Tuesday against visiting Woodrow Wilson High School. The Lady Presidents handed the Lady Bulldogs their second straight loss, forcing a playoff to determine the No. 1 team in the conference. (Caroline LaMagna photo)

King’s Fork High School’s girls’ basketball team has not looked like itself the last two games.

The Lady Bulldogs started the 2015-16 season similar to the Golden State Warriors, going 20-0, but King’s Fork’s undefeated run ended there, and now it has lost back-to-back games.

Following a 67-64 overtime loss to host Lake Taylor High School on Friday, the Lady Bulldogs lost 59-51 to visiting Woodrow Wilson High School on Tuesday, falling into a three-way regular-season tie for first place in Conference 17.

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“We’re a much better team than what we displayed last night,” King’s Fork coach Maurice Fofana said on Wednesday.

The Lady Bulldogs did not display the fight and the grit that characterized their remarkable start, which was the longest undefeated start the team has had in Fofana’s seven years as its coach.

Wilson beat King’s Fork to a lot of loose balls and successfully avenged their 66-64 double overtime home loss that they suffered at the hands of the Lady Bulldogs on Feb. 1.

On Tuesday, KF junior forward Amesha Miller produced 20 points and 13 rebounds, sophomore point guard Camary Harris had 10 points, five steals and five rebounds and junior guard Cydney Nichols added 11 points and four steals.

Lake Taylor avenged its 58-49 Jan. 19 road loss to King’s Fork with its win on Friday, and Fofana again saw much room for improvement in his team’s performance.

“I think they could have done a lot more,” he said. “But the same thing that cost us the game on last Friday, it kind of carried over to the game last night.”

With the loss on Tuesday to the Lady Presidents, King’s Fork must now fight through two playoff games to claim the No. 1 regular-season ranking in Conference 17, which carries with it an automatic berth in the Region 4A West tournament.

The Lady Bulldogs (20-2) are tied with Wilson and Lake Taylor for the top spot. Wilson won the first-round bye in the playoff through a random draw, meaning King’s Fork and the Lady Titans will play on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Deep Creek High School for the right to face the Lady Presidents for the top seed on 2 p.m. Saturday at Deep Creek.

Fofana said he and his team just need to fix whatever issues it has while there is still time.

“We’re in a position where we still can do everything we set out to do,” he said.