Kennedy Girls Basketball Finishes Regular Season with Showstopping Win

The Kennedy Lady Cougars took both of their games this season against inter-district rival Calhoun after a big Monday night at Calhoun High School.

Kennedy spotted the Lady Colts a 16-5 lead in the first quarter, stayed close, and then came roaring back in the fourth quarter to win it 48-45.

The win, which came despite playing without the services of key starter Allie Keller, made bookends of the season against Calhoun for Kennedy -- the Lady Cougars won 51-44 the first time around. It also gave the Lady Cougars (9-5) sole possession of third place in Conference AA-III and a berth in the postseason.

Calhoun (8-6), which led for more than three quarters in the ‘down-to-the-wire’ game, also made the playoffs, but had to settle for fourth place in the regular season.

“They were really driving to the basket in the beginning,” Kennedy senior Morgan Kitton said. “It was definitely a tough match for us at first. But then we dropped into a 2-3 zone and that slowed down (Meghan) Sullivan.”

“It came down to execution at the end of the game,” Calhoun coach David Radtke said. “We missed a ton of layups. We had our shots, we just missed them.”

Leading the way for Kennedy was Kitton, who had 16 points, 10 rebounds and a couple of blocked shots inside. Heather Hulkower was big inside as well, hauling in six rebounds, while netting eight points of her own. The Lady Cougars also benefited from some hot three-point shooting, including two three's from Kerri Baum and one each from Victoria Ferry and Carly Thea.

Calhoun was led offensively by Meghan O’Sullivan, who scored the bulk of her 17 points in the first half. Jessica Ruggiero, who finished with eight points and 16 rebounds, fought intensely inside, and Danielle Lossee had a field day from outside the three-point line, dropping four treys over the course of the game. Dana Silvester scored four points and contributed 12 rebounds.

Things looked pretty grim for Kennedy at the outset, with Calhoun coming out of the box firing on all cylinders. O’Sullivan was particularly effective, scoring 14 of her team’s 16 points in the first half.

But a nice run in the second quarter, punctuated by aggressive ball hawking from Kitton and a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Ferry, pulled the Lady Cougars to a four-point halftime deficit.

The margin stayed pretty much the same for Kennedy in the third quarter and a couple of minutes into the fourth, despite Lossee finding her three-point shot and offsetting some offensive intensity from Kitton and Thea.

Of note, however, was the shutting down of the Colts’ O’Sullivan, with a 2-3 defense that seemed to stymie her drives to the basket. It was then that Kitton's free-style offensive game began to pay dividends.

The shift in momentum showed up on the scoreboard in the fourth as Kitton found Baum for a three-pointer and Hulkower came right back with a bucket to make it a 38-37 game. A big steal from Thea with 6:26 on the clock set up a one-and one situation for Kitton at the foul line. She calmly knocked down both shots as Kennedy pulled ahead 39-38 -- a lead the Lady Cougars would essentially hold onto until the end.

“When we were down 16-5, I didn’t know if we had it in us to come back,” Kennedy head coach Debra Cipolla-Minafo said. “But we stepped it up, pushed the ball down court and played solid defense. Kerrie Baum stepped up her game, and we benefited from Morgan Kitton’s athleticism.”

All of Calhoun’s efforts to climb back on top were thwarted by fast-break and transition baskets from Kennedy players, and with the Lady Colts unable to finish their shots, the Lady Cougars came up with the win.

"We did our best," Losee said. "It just didn't work out."

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