Lady Colts Falter At Kennedy

The friendly, cross-town rivalry turned quickly into a heated contest as the Lady Colts and Lady Cougars fought for Bellmore-Merrick bragging rights on the hardwood floor. 

In the end, the Lady Colts of Calhoun High School fought back from a 12 point deficit late in the third quarter, but could not rally to win. The team has dropped to 5-2 in conference play with this 51-44 loss.

The loss came despite strong play for Meghan O’Sullivan, who scored 17 points and had 12 rebounds; Jessica Ruggiero, who brought in 13 points and 10 rebounds;  and Ellie Rosenblum, with six points and two rebounds. Additional key buckets from Dana Silvester, who added five points to the team's score, nabbed four rebounds and had two steals, couldn't push the Colts ahead for the win. 

Leading the way for the 4-3 Lady Colts was Allie Keller with 17 points, six rebounds; Morgan Kitton with eight points, 12 rebounds; and Carly Thea with two rebounds and eight points to open the second half.

The game was a seesaw battle, with Calhoun coming out strong to take a narrow 17-16 lead at the end of the first quarter, despite seven rebounds by Kitton, on a strong inside play by Ruggiero.

In the second quarter, however, the tide shifted in the Cougars’ favor, as Keller got untracked on offense and Kennedy’s ability to double down on Ruggiero began to take effect.

“When they got it inside, we doubled down and kept O’Sullivan and Ruggiero from turning with the ball,” said Thea.

Contributing to the 28-25 halftime lead for the Lady Cougars was 2 for 14 shooting by O’Sullivan, who spent most of the first half getting close to the bucket but failing to convert.

If the first half was nip and tuck, the second half was a matter of each team getting a big run in. It was the Lady Cougars who came up big first, running up a 12-point lead as Thea took over with penetrating moves to the bucket and a sure hand to finish. With three minutes remaining in the third, it was Kennedy up 44-32.

The Calhoun girls regrouped and came out swinging. Through the rest of the third and deep into the fourth quarter, they outscored Kennedy 12-4. The key to that run was O’Sullivan, who found her shot and netted eight points, including a lean-in bucket with four minutes remaining to make it 46-42.

But a sweet pull-up jumper by Keller made it a six-point game. And when Kitton took a charge on the baseline from Silvester, time began to run out for the Colts.

With less than a minute to go, both O’Sullivan and Ruggiero got shots in close, but were denied.

It remained for Keller to knock down three of four from the foul line in the waning seconds to seal the win for Kennedy.

“We had a shot at it, we had our chances,” said David Radtke, Calhoun coach. “We just missed a bunch of easy layups. This is a big rivalry, and it came down to a couple of bounces, that was the difference.”

“We played smart and we executed our shots,“ said Debra Cipolla-Minafo, Kennedy coach.

Next up for Calhoun is a matchup against undefeated Mepham away, 6:30 p.m. on Jan 21.

                         1     2      3      4     F

Kennedy     16  12   16    7      51

Calhoun       17  8     11    8     44