Kennedy Boys Basketball No Match for Great Neck South

For the first time in more than a month the Kennedy Cougars (5-1 Conf. AA-III, 7-2 overall) tasted defeat. The Cougars gave their best effort on Friday night when they hosted the Great Neck South Rebels, but it wasn't enough as Kennedy fell 60-55 in the Conference AA-III matchup.

Great Neck South came out strong in the first quarter with Stephen Ambrosio, Ben Kestenbaum and Josh Garfinkel sinking baskets in order to give the Rebels an early lead.

Not to be outdone, a late rally by the Cougars tied the score at 15-15 to end the first quarter. Banging three three-point shots and a field goal in the first half, Joe Karo was the game's high-scorer with 14 points.

Also contributing a big game for the Cougars was Mike Teich, who brought home 11 points and kept his team alive. In addition, rebounds by Jason Champagne, Ben Canarick, Andrew Hirsch and Keith Safon showed the Rebels that the Cougars were there to fight the good fight.

Though the teams spent the first half of the game going point-for-point, both looked for opportunities to open the door and pull away with a big run as the Rebels held on to a one-point lead at halftime.

But during the second half of the game, Kennedy's defense struggled to keep up, and multiple forced turnovers helped the Rebels gain momentum.

Kennedy's Adrian Rose, who is known for his big-time shooting, tied the game at 50 with just a few minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Ready to keep the ball rolling, suspense quickly turned to disappointment for the Kennedy boys as they watched the Rebels' score creep higher and higher in the final two minutes of a nail-biter of a game.

A series of successful free throws by the Rebels thwarted the efforts of a potential Kennedy comeback. Even with a late field goal by Teich and Karo's fourth three-point shot of the night, it was not enough for the Cougars to overtake the Rebels.

Although disappointed with the team's first loss since Dec. 8, Kennedy head coach Rory Block explained that his team played hard the whole way through and the effort put in by the Cougars did not go unnoticed.

"Our guys really played hard, and I'm proud of them. Sometimes you just end up losing games," he said.

With the loss, the Cougars are now in a three-way tie for first place in Conference AA-III with Great Neck South and the Elmont Spartans, but the season is far from over and Kennedy still has plenty of time to take back sole possession of first place.

The late mistakes and turnovers is something that Block noted the team needs to work on if they expect to do any damage come playoff time.

“I think they played very hard, but we didn't make enough shots,” Block said of his team's performance. “... We didn't play smart enough when it counted at the last couple of minutes."

The Cougars still have plenty of opportunity for redemption, with the crosstown rival Calhoun Colts this Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

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