Lady Cougars Roll in Basketball Action

The Kennedy Lady Cougars basketball team jumped out to a 12-3 first-quarter lead against the visiting Lawrence Golden Tornadoes and never looked back, dominating inside and out on offense and winning by a score of 52-28 on Monday night.

Led by senior guards Allie Keller, 25 points and seven rebounds, and Carly Thea, 21 points and five assists, Kennedy rebounded nicely from a tough opening-season loss last week. The Lady Cougars dominated Lawrence's big sophomore center Nicole Robinson in the paint and countered talented Lawrence guard Farrah Desvarieux with good perimeter defense.

Junior Heather Hulkower was dominant on the boards for Kennedy, hauling in nine of her team-leading 11 rebounds in the first half.

"We did well. We made our shots and Keller may have had her personal best performance today," Kennedy head coach Debra Cipolla-Minafo said. "Thea was very strong going to the hoop, and Heather was strong under the boards."

In fact the first quarter was a display of offensive fireworks for Thea, who netted 10 of her team's 12 points in the quarter on some easy fast-break layups and a startling display of aggression in the paint, dribbling through three defenders for a basket at the buzzer.

"The first girl put up a fight but the second one I just got around," said Thea about her moves on that play. "After that, I just drove to the basket."

The quick start set Lawrence on its heels in the non-league contest and they never seemed to recover. With Keller and Melissa Coluccio getting into the scoring action in the second quarter, Kennedy beat back an offensive foray that saw Lawrence narrow it to eight at 19-11, on strong inside play from Robinson and a few sweet shots from Desvarieux. Eight unanswered points for Kennedy put the Lady Cougars up 27-11 at the half.

Keller was on fire during much of the game, particularly when Lawrence tried to tighten up the middle in an attempt to slow Thea's penetrating moves. "Carly's fast," Keller said. "She makes her break, and then she sees me and feeds me the ball. She makes me look better."

In the second half, Cipolla-Minafo was able to give a number of players minutes on the court, and saw some good things from tenth-grade point guard Kerri Baum. "She did well," Cipolla-Minafo said. "She needs more confidence, but she's quick."

If there was any area that Kennedy found they could use some work it was in their man defense, particularly when facing a talent like Desvarieux. "We had some trouble today with that," Cipolla-Minafo said. "But we'll work on it.

After a final non-league match on Wednesday, the Lady Cougars get their league season underway on Saturday when they host Elmont at 11:30 a.m.