EDMOND — Keeley Parks treats her focused, serious facial expression like a basketball uniform.

The Norman junior guard wears it every time she competes.

“My face is always stoic, if I’m doing good or if I’m doing bad,” said Parks, a five-star recruit whose many offers include Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. “I try not to show too much emotion.”

Her calm countenance offered few hints about the way she was altering the game Tuesday night at Edmond Santa Fe, but the scoreboard showed otherwise.

Norman’s girls basketball team slipped past the host Wolves, 42-37, with a massive second-half comeback. The Tigers (11-7 overall, 6-4 District 6A-2) faced a 12-3 deficit at the end of the first quarter, but Parks adeptly mended their early mistakes.

She scored all but three of the Tigers’ 28 second-half points, and Norman coach Frankie Parks wasn’t surprised to see his daughter in the zone.

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“It’s Keeley,” her father said. “I think she finally took it on herself, like, ‘OK, I figured out what they’re trying to do.’”

Despite finishing with a game-high 29 points, Parks managed only four before halftime. The Wolves (10-7, 6-4 District 6A-2) trapped and double-teamed her, and with 6-foot senior center Jerney Bennett automatically blocking shots, 5-foot-11 Parks had limited chances to score near the basket.

But Parks understands patience and persistence.

Those attributes have been necessary throughout the highs and lows of Norman’s season. After advancing to the 2022-23 state finals, the Tigers lost most of their stars to graduation, leaving Parks as the leader of a roster with little varsity experience.

Parks, who entered Tuesday averaging 25 points per game, has reached double figures in every matchup this season, including a school-record 51 points against Midwest City.

Her defensive prowess and offensive consistency have brought her offers from Tennessee, UCLA and other prominent programs across the nation. But she’s saving several of her official visits for the spring, instead focusing on helping the Tigers build through the winter.

“We’re all different, and we’re really young,” Parks said. “I feel like we have really good things that happen, and then really bad things, so we’re just learning.

“We just push through it. That’s all we can do.”

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Their growing pains included a 51-33 home loss to Edmond Santa Fe in their third game of the season, but Frankie Parks said the present-day Tigers no longer resemble that struggling team.

They know how to have confidence through adversity. They can handle height mismatches, as 5-foot-5 sophomore Ady Hybl showed while relentlessly guarding taller Santa Fe players.

And when the Tigers need a miracle, they have Keeley Parks on their side.

Parks’ success started with defense as she capitalized on steals. She turned one into an uncontested layup that cut Edmond Santa Fe’s lead to 37-34 in the fourth quarter. Then she added another steal, scored with Bennett guarding her and drew the foul.

Parks capped the sequence with a free throw that tied the game at 37.

She wasn’t done yet.

After knocking down a deep 3 from the left wing to take the lead, she maintained her stoic expression before letting a small grin crawl across her face as she slapped hands with a teammate.

Junior forward Destinee Deer, who finished with nine points, iced the victory with a pair of free throws.

“I think that fourth quarter really showed who we could be,” Frankie Parks said. “It’s just a matter of doing that consistently throughout four quarters.”

Boys basketball: Norman 49, Edmond Santa Fe 40

Edmond Santa Fe couldn’t stop the dynamic duo of Trashaun Combs-Pierce and Isaiah Amous.

Norman defeated the Wolves, 49-40, as Combs-Pierce finished with 18 points and Amous scored 13. Gideon Holt contributed 10 points.

Edmond Santa Fe outscored the Tigers, 15-12, in the fourth quarter, but ran out of time for a rally. Nik Rhodes led the Wolves with 10 points.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 5-star recruit Keeley Parks fuels Norman’s comeback at Edmond Santa Fe