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Light Rain Strong rebounding lifts Kennedy
Cougars top East Meadow
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East Meadow's Andrew Wilen drives against Kennedy's Andrew Kruter during last Friday's Conference AA-III game.
Jeff Wilson/Herald
Rallying to outscore host Kennedy by five points in the second quarter of last Friday's Conference AA-III boys' basketball game wasn't enough for East Meadow to mount a comeback. The Cougars had jumped out to a 15-point lead in the first quarter that the Jets would never overcome as they fell, 49-37.
Kennedy rested on its size knowing that East Meadow would have to shoot from outside.
"We have a pretty strong team physically so other teams aren't going to get a lot of easy points inside if we're playing decent defense," Kennedy coach Rory Block said.
Junior guard Jay Karo led the Cougars in scoring with 14, followed by senior center Brendan Mills with 12. But the game was really won for Kennedy off the defensive boards, allowing East Meadow no offensive rebounds. Having beat the Jets 48-40 on Jan. 4, Block knew defense would be key in securing another win.
"They're well coached, they play very hard so we were expecting a low scoring battle," Block said. "It was good that our defense kept their points down or otherwise it would have been a very close game."
Standing at 6-5, Mills was a large part of bringing down rebounds on defense. "What [Mills] does, it's very valuable because he limits you to one shot, because he gets every defensive rebound," Jets coach Barry Dickson said.
Struggling to pull down offensive rebounds, the Jets relied on forwards Rob Franzese and Jeff Angelino to lead the team from the outside. Franzese put up nine points for East Meadow, but was still unable to close the gap on Kennedy.
The Cougars strong defensive game carried into the second half. Having allowed 12 points in the second quarter, Mills said that Kennedy emphasized getting back to rebounding.
Going into halftime, Kennedy knew it had to "make sure [East Meadow] couldn't make their threes," Mills said. "They had two three shooters and we shut them down."
And that's just what the Cougars and Mills did. Mills took his position on the posts and shut down any chance of East Meadow seeing an offensive rebound. The Jets started fouling in the third quarter to try and gain possession, but Mills went 3-for-4 from the line and the Cougars widened their lead to 37-26 going into the fourth.
It didn't help East Meadow that one of its best players struggled to find the back of the net. Forward Matthew Gundrum, who put up 17 points in the Jan. 4 meeting, saw little success this go-around. Gundrum's quiet game (no points) seemed to speak for the Jets as a whole.
Dickson noted it's hard to win when one of your best players is having an off night. "We usually play pretty good defense and pressure the ball pretty hard, it just seemed like we had a lack of energy, and it cost us," he said.
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