Lady Cougars Soar Over Jets

The Bellmore JFK Lady Cougars were coming off a loss to Syosset on Tuesday in a game where nearly their entire team was in foul trouble. But that didn't stop them from keeping to their aggressive game plan.

Hosting East Meadow last night, the Cougars featured a full court press that stymied the Lady Jets' offense throughout most of the game. Along with their lockdown defense, junior Morgan Kitton led the way with 16 points as Kennedy came away victorious, 49-43.

"We played well today," Kitton said."Our shots were on, almost everyone got in and contributed, and we shut down their players."

Kitton got the Cougars going early by hitting quick back-to-back layups to put her team up 4-2. Kennedy jumped out to an early 11-6 lead, but the Jets stormed back to score the last six points of the quarter to grab the lead, 12-6.

In the second quarter, the Cougars' full-court press began to show results. Along with forcing several turnovers, they held East Meadow to just six points in the quarter.

The Jets didn't score until three and a half minutes into the quarter, and constantly had trouble just getting the ball across half court. After junior Carly Thea hit a three-pointer with 2:30 remaining, the Cougars grabbed a six point lead that they would carry into the half. They led 24-18 at the break.

"We executed the press well, and that helped us," Kennedy coach Debra Cipolla-Minafo said. "But we got into a bit of foul trouble, so we pulled back a little. The girls moved the ball well, and they played defense on [East Meadow's Melissa Cohen] well. That was our game plan because she was their high-scorer for most of the game so we wanted to shut her down."

The Cougars would distance themselves in the third quarter, at one point jumping out to a 10 point lead. East Meadow's Shannon Stergis would hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to seven, but Kennedy answered back. They outscored the Jets by five in the quarter, and would lead 38-27.

That was the quarter, according to East Meadow coach Bethany Lesueur, that made the difference in the game.

"Our motto is to try to play at least pretty close the first half, and we let it go a little in the beginning of the third quarter," Lesueur said. "We just stopped attacking and forced the issue a little bit, and that was really the game in the third quarter."

East Meadow would play their best offensive quarter in the fourth, but the deficit was just too much. Whenever the Jets hit a shot, Kennedy would answer.

After East Meadow's Brittany Anghel hit two free throws to cut Kennedy's lead to 42-36, senior Steph Roney responded for the Cougars by hitting a baseline jumper.

Shortly after, Stergis hit a deep two-pointer for East Meadow, only to see Kitton hit a shot immediately after to put the lead back up to eight. Anghel would hit two more free-throws, but this was followed by a layup from senior Taylor Kruter to keep the Cougars up by eight at 48-40. 

Stergis, who led East Meadow with 16 points, did her best to keep her team in the game. But in the end, the Lady Cougars were just too much.

"At first we came out a little cold," Stergis said. "But then we began to step it up and play more as a unit and we got a lot more shots and attacked."

Also chipping in for the Jets was Anghel with nine points, Jenna Dragoon with five points, and Melissa Cohen and Hillary Hoffman, each with four points.

The Cougars had three players in double-digits in scoring. Kitton's 16 points led the team for the second straight game, while Kruter had a solid game with 10 points, and junior Allie Keller also finished with 10 points. Also contributing was Roney with six points.

The Lady Cougars (8-3, 10-6) will host Calhoun (5-5, 6-9) next Monday in their last regular season game. As it is the last home game of the regular season, the team will honor their seniors before tip-off.