Cougars excel on defensive end, knock off Kennett

UWCHLAN >> Coming off the holiday break, teams can start focusing on making league and district playoff runs, but the Kennett girls basketball team was still in the giving mood Tuesday.
Missed shots and turnovers were the Grinches for the Blue Demons as they recorded only two baskets in the second half. Downingtown East led nearly from start to finish to post a 36-22 victory in a nonleague contest at Bob Boyer Gymnasium.
Kennett (4-5) shot just 1-for-14 in the third quarter and was held to one point in the frame. The fourth was not much better as they went 2-of-12. They had a brief moment when they cut into the lead, but the Cougars (4-7) held on to snap a four-game losing streak.
“It’s an unfortunate situation when we have injured players, so it’s hard to practice offense when you don’t have a defense,” said first-year Kennett coach John McMenamin. “We’ll get there.”

Greta Burns hit a left corner three-pointer for the first points of the game and that was the high point for the Kennett offense. Working with a distinct height advantage, Ari Smuda scored from in close for a 5-3 advantage and a lead that D-East did not relinquinsh.
“It was a good, solid team win,” said East coach Darren Domsohn. “The girls executed the gameplan very well. It was fun to get back on the winning side of things.”
East went on a 6-1 run in the last half of the first quarter to take an 11-5 lead after one period.
The Cougars built the lead to 20-10 on two free throws by freshman Charlotte Aldridge. Kennett’s Mia Matthews scored the last four points and the Blue Demons went into halftime trailing, 20-14.
Kennett turned the ball over six times in the first quarter. After a mistake-free second period, they posted eight miscues in the third quarter.
“Credit to the girls,” said Domsohn on his defense. “We worked hard the last couple of days on just ourselves, our rotations, what we wanted to focus on when we are on the floor. Then we talked about matchups leading into the game. I thought the girls excuted what we talked about, at practice and before the game.”

East outscored Kennett, 11-1, to take control of the game and open up a 31-15 bulge after three periods. Aldridge had four points and Lauren Bell notched two straight baskets at the end of the quarter.
The Blue Demons tried to turn up the defense to get back in the game, and they forced 10 turnovers, but were not able to turn most of them into points.
Burns ended the near 10-minute field goal drought to cut it to 31-18 with 6:38 left. Kennett scored on back-to-back buckets from Makayla Kelly and Burns to slice the deficit to 31-22 with 1:35 left and bring the Kennett cheering section into the game.
But, that was where the comeback ended as the Cougars scored the last five points of the fourth to close out the game.
“I felt we executed really well,” said Aldridge, who celebrated her birthday with a game-high 16 points. “We worked hard on our defense. We stayed calm and our guards took over the game. They handled the pressure really well.”
Burns and Kelly led Kennett with seven points each.
“Our girls played with a lot of heart,” added McMenamin. “They got down, but kept working. I’m very proud of these girls. We took one on the chin, but we’ll be back.”

Downingtown East 36, Kennett 22
Kennett: Simmons 0 1-2 1; Burns 3 0-1 7; Lusvardi 0 1-1 1; Kelly 3 1-4 7; Matthews 1 4-6 6; Comanda 0 0-0 0. Totals: 7 7-14 22.
Downingtown East: Aldridge 6 4-9 16; Hewitt 2 2-4 6; Smuda 2 2-7 6; Ardoline 1 1-2 4; Boyd 0 0-0 0; Bell 2 0-0 4; Comegys 0 0-0 0; Hoover 0 0-0 0. Totals: 13 9-25 36.
Kennett 5 9 1 7 — 22
Downingtown East 11 9 11 5 — 36
3-point goals: Burns, Ardoline.