Baylee Booker during her performance against Flinthills. Photo by Jessica Fitch.

by Tracy McCue , Sumner Newscow — In basketball, they call it “getting into the zone” — that rare occasion when a basketball player gets so hot he/she can’t miss. But Baylee Booker, an Argonia freshman girls basketball player, wasn’t just hot last Friday night – she was record-setting, unstoppable, smoking, burn-the-gym-down hot.

And she appears to be on her way to making the state record books.

On Friday night, when the Argonia girls upset Flinthills 65-54 at home, Booker went 8-for-8 from beyond the 3-point line. She had scored 26 points for the game including a layup. After review of the books and looking at both the game films of Argonia and Flinthills, it was determined Booker never missed.

Argonia girls head coach Dixie Brewster called the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame this week, and officials there say that there has never been a girl basketball player who has shot more than five three-pointers without missing.

“You see players go 1-for-1 or 2-for-2 on 3-pointers a lot,” Brewster said. “But it is highly unusual to get one girl hitting 4-for-4. Baylee had eight of them. Incredible.”

The girls basketball record for 3-pointers is 12, Brewster said. But even that girl wasn’t shooting 100 percent.

The thing is, nobody realized such a record was happening at the time.

Oh, everyone knew Booker was hot that night, for sure. And she was nailing her outside shots despite being sick with a stomach virus. She had to leave at one point in the fourth quarter to vomit in the locker room.

But Booker came back and asked the coaches if she could play again. Brewster put her back on court and she hit another 3-pointer.

“We were talking about it after the game and my husband, Dean, does books,” Brewster said. “I asked him if she had four or five 3-pointers, not really keeping track. We looked at the book, and holy cow she hit eight shots.”

Then after some more talk, nobody could remember if she actually missed a shot.

“We started looking at the film and the answer was no,” Brewster said. “She never did.”

The thing is, there was no game plan to give Booker the ball and let her shoot. Jessie Tracy, a junior, is the team’s best 3-point shooter.

“They were more focused on her,” Brewster said. “We have always told our girls, if there is a hot shooter, get her the ball. Baylee was hot that game, but never was that really the focus. It just happened.”

Flinthills was in a zone defense most of the evening, and there was no box-and-one defense implemented on her when she started scoring. Booker is only 5-0 and her being a freshman may have made the opponent overlook her, Brewster speculated.

For the Argonia girls, it was a huge win. The Lady Raiders knocked off the No. 2 team in the SCBL, which up to that point hadn’t lost in league play. The Red Raiders were 6-11 at the time and are now 8-11 after another win Tuesday against Oxford.

Booker, who averages six points a game, had two points on Tuesday night against Oxford. Like getting that hole in one in golf, getting in a record setting zone doesn’t happen every ball game.

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