Jekot, Cumberland Valley make O’Hara third victim

HERSHEY >> In her storied high school career up until Friday, Kelly Jekot had garnered two state Player of the Year honors, hoisted two PIAA Class AAAA state championships and secured a scholarship to Villanova.
On a basketball court, Jekot usually gets what she wants. Against Cardinal O’Hara, the Cumberland Valley senior wanted a third state crown, and no one was going to deny her.
Jekot was simply dominant, powering the District 3 champion Eagles to a 57-34 manhandling of District 12 champion O’Hara. The senior guard scored 28 points on a ludicrous 11-for-15 shooting, plus seven rebounds and four assists. She had a direct hand in 15 of the Eagles’ 22 baskets.
“When she’s making shots like that, she’s unguardable,” said O’Hara’s Kenzie Gardler.
“I don’t know what the stats were, but it was pretty close to perfection,” added Mary Sheehan, who drew the short straw of shadowing Jekot in the first of several plans of attack devised by coach Linus McGinty. “They came out from the get-go, and they were dominant. …
“If they’re making shots, I don’t know how you’re going to stop them. I don’t know if anyone’s cracked that one yet.”
It wasn’t until early in the fourth quarter that O’Hara started outscoring the Villanova-bound Jekot, much less the rest of an Eagles roster riddled with Division I talent.
O’Hara threw everything it had defensively at the 6-foot guard. They went big and small. They pressed, face-guarded and tried to deny possession.
But try as it might, O’Hara (26-4) had no answers. The Lions denied Jekot in the post in the first half, so she hit four 3-pointers without a miss. When they closed out on open looks on the perimeter, she put the ball on the deck, driving to the hoop and kicking to available shooters. Couple that with O’Hara’s lack of height requiring constant help defense on 6-foot-1 forward Addie Kirkpatrick (12 points, 10 rebounds), and there were just too many problems for the Lions to solve.
Even the familiarity from AAU — Jekot and her younger sister, Katelyn, play for the Comets, the same squad that O’Hara’s star-studded core has brought to national acclaim — didn’t help.
“I had a height advantage, so I tried my best to work it in the post and shoot it from the outside as much as I could, even though they were limiting my shots,” Kelly Jekot said.
Rhythm on offense proved elusive for O’Hara. Gardler, Jekot’s future teammate for Harry Perretta, led the way with 11 points. Hannah Nihill added 10, and Sheehan had eight, encumbered by her hefty defensive responsibility. The rest of the roster accounted for only one made basket (via Molly Paolino).
The disruption on the opposite end ultimately traces back to Jekot, especially when O’Hara’s chances from beyond the arc stopped falling.
“Every time you thought you’d get a little momentum, she’d swing the ball to someone else and they’d hit a 3 and or find someone under the basket,” Sheehan said. “I think knowing her, we thought, would help us, but I don’t know if it did.”
Jekot did it every which way. She struck from distance in a 16-point first half in which O’Hara was limited to just 17 points. She added 10 points in the third, from a back-door cut assisted by Morgan Baughman to an unstoppable spin move to the glass. When the defense keyed on Jekot, she dished to Baughman late in the quarter to knock down an open trey, extending the lead to 20, 43-23.
Those were the only three points of the night for Baughman, a Niagara recruit who hit two free throws in the final second to help Cumberland Valley survive a semifinal scare against North Allegheny.
O’Hara (26-3) started brightly, scoring 12 first-quarter points and trailing just 15-12 after one. The Lions were 3-for-4 in the frame from beyond the arc, the triples supplied by the big three of Gardler, Nihill and Sheehan. But things soon went quiet.
After shooting 5-for-9 from the field through first quarter and one possession of the second, O’Hara missed 25 of its next 31 shots to close the game and scored just 13 points in the middle two frames.
Jekot also helped perpetuate CV’s massive height advantage. They outrebounded O’Hara 38-15, including 19-6 at halftime. The edge on the offensive glass was 10-3. Katelyn Jekot, who like Sheehan is committed to Saint Joseph’s, filled the stat sheet with seven points, seven rebounds and five assists. Only 13 Eagles turnovers prevented the margin from being more lopsided.
“I think we did the best we could, and Cumberland Valley did phenomenal tonight,” Gardler said. “They just did awesome.”