Friends Join Forces One More Time as JFK Girls Win

Steph Roney went through layup drills Friday night sporting a black long-sleeve T-shirt with "2009 A Banner Year" emblazoned across the back. The shirt refers to the tapestry hanging in Bellmore Kennedy's gymnasium, thanks to the program's first-ever conference title in girls basketball last season.

But with the team huddled awaiting the second quarter of this year's AA-II Conference opener--having hardly resembled champions during a sloppy first stanza--a much more personal reminder of last season's success made her presence known at Freeport High School.

Ina Li, an all-conference point guard and team captain last year, walked behind the bench to say hi. She's home from Duke, where according to coach Debra Cipolla-Minafo her grade point average is just as gaudy as her crossover dribble was. Tight game be damned, hugs and high-fives and as much gossip as can be shared in 15 seconds were in order.

"Ina and Roney were inseparable last year, so I think Roney [after seeing her] felt a little motivation to do well," Cipolla-Minafo explained.

The motivation went pretty well, as the 5-foot-6 senior guard helped key a fourth-quarter run that pushed Kennedy to a 45-32 win over Freeport.

Roney had sixth-man duty Friday after starting the non-conference games, and Cipolla-Minafo inserted her early to provide the kind of spark they were hoping would develop by bringing her off the bench. But up until her pair of jumpers early in the fourth quarter finally put Kennedy in control, the game seemed destined to be a nail-biter. Freeport drilled buzzer-beaters at the end of both the second and third quarters to keep the momentum in their favor, and Kennedy all-conference selection Allie Keller spent the night saddled with foul trouble.

But part of the fun a new season brings is seeing what happens when things go wrong. In this case junior guard Brittany Venezia stepped up, pulling some key rebounds on an evening where neither team shot particularly well. Her pair of free throws with 2:54 left gave Kennedy its first double-digit lead at 41-31.

"It's interesting, because we never thought we had a bench," Cipolla-Minafo said. "But here Venezia came in and did the job for us."

Taylor Kruter, the third all-conference selection from last year, led Kennedy with 16 points and 10 rebounds. After fighting all night in the paint with a sizable Freeport front line, she finally started getting rewarded with some second-chance points in the second half. 

Kennedy 9  7  12 17 - 45

Freeport  7 10 10 5   - 32

Kennedy: Taylor Kruter 16, Steph Roney 12, Morgan Kitton 8, Brittany Venezia 5, Carly Thea 4.

Freeport: Latasha Morris 16, Star-Asia Harris 8, Deasia Goodson 3, Rahkeya Raiford 3, Chastity Williams 2.