Kennedy suffers 1st loss
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WARREN -- It's safe to say that Warren John F. Kennedy has run the gauntlet of late when it comes to facing strong competition.
Last week, it was an upset victory over Akron Hobon, the defending Division I state champions. The latest opportunity came Tuesday night against the Division II state runner-ups in the form of Lutheran West.
Despite falling behind early, the Eagles cut the deficit to within four late in the contest before ultimately losing 75-61. It was Kennedy's first loss of the season.
Six-foot-two junior Nick Ryan tallied 28 points in the effort. Kennedy (5-1) found itself only down 55-51 midway though the fourth quarter after trailing as much as 31-6.
"At halftime we reminded them that we had missed 10 layups in the first half, and I think we were concerned about their length and it's not like we haven't seen that length before. They're a really good team and shot the ball really well," Eagles coach Mark Komlanc said. "It was just one possession at a time. Offensively I thought we were really sloppy, but we made some hustle plays in that third quarter and we just got physically and mentally tired late and made some careless mistakes.
"It's a good learning experience, but it only matters if we learn from it."
The Longhorns (6-0) owned a 43-22 lead at halftime, finding plenty of success from beyond the arc while also finding the paint when needed as JFK failed to find much rhythm on the offensive end of the floor. That would change following the intermission however, with an 11-2 Eagles run, highlighted by three-pointers off the hands of seniors Jaden Rishel and Michael Condoleon.
Ryan netted five out of the Eagles final six points of the period, including a coast-to-coast layup following a steal which brought JFK to within 55-46 heading into the final eight minutes of play. He'd find the bucket to start the fourth quarter, then senior Nico Ciminero nailed a three on a pass by fellow senior Quinn Meola following an offensive board, cutting the lead down to four.
Lutheran West went on to outscore the host Eagles 20-10 over the critical four minutes down the stretch. The visitors recorded nine three-pointers, six coming by Dylan Bartchak.
To complement Ryan, Rishel netted 13, Ciminero added 11, Condoleon tacked on nine.
Even with the large deficit early on, Komlanc was pleased at the spirit his team displayed against one of the better basketball teams in the state.
"They played to the buzzer. Probably could have subbed guys in, but I think that those five tonight, I wanted to see how they would respond to being down big because it's the first time they were down big, and I thought they did a good job with that," Komlanc said. "Hopefully in the future we don't have to go down big and we can use our bench a little bit more. I know we can, but I wanted to give them a chance.
"They're the seniors, so they needed to feel it this time. I told them if this was a tournament game, after tonight they'd be going home, so I wanted them to feel that. I know they've been down this road before, and they don't want that to happen again this year. When you play a great team, you have to come locked in and focused in all aspects of the game, and we all weren't quite there."
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