Kingston girls drop fourth game in a row

Unforced errors hurt Tigers as they drop their fourth straight game

Kingston High hung tough for one half, but Valley Central pinned a fourth consecutive loss on the Tigers’ girls basketball team Thursday night, winning the Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association game 57-39.

Laine Bell scored 20 points and Katie Crofoot had 11 to pace the undefeated (5-0) Vikings.

“We hung with them, we hung around them, but we didn’t have enough weapons,” said Kingston coach Steve Garner, whose team has not won since opening night against Monroe-Woodbury.

Rosella Nardi came off the bench for team-high nine points, Lexi Diers had eight and Kalie Hylton-Jackson scored six to pace Kingston (1-4).

Ava Guralnick and Diers hit 3-point field goals to put Kingston up early, but treys from Crofoot and Madeline Feller brought the Vikings right back.

“It’s about valuing possessions, getting in the right spot,” Garner said. “You’re playing in a certain way and then you have a possession or a couple-possession letdown. And good teams like this will make you pay every time and they did.”

It was tied 13-13 early in the second quarter when some of those opportunities got away from the Tigers. Valley Central went on a 7-0 run, thanks to consecutive steals from Bell, Feller and Deanna Murdock.

The defense rallied the Tigers as it the Vikings went scoreless for five minutes. Trista Lukaszewski hit a 3-pointer with 3:03 left in the half to cut the deficit to 22-20, but Bell scored on a putback and layup and Mackenzie Ross buried a 3 to open a 29-20 advantage.

The Tigers had too many unforced turnovers and lost the ball 18 times overall. Valley Central scored only eight points off those miscues, but the turnovers were more than enough to disrupt Kingston’s attack.

“We’re not a great offensive team. We don’t have the luxury of when we get easy shots and you don’t make them, we can recover. It really hurts,” Garner said. “We’re working hard. It’s just that the margin of error is so slim when you don’t take advantage of things. We had threeon-ones and one-on-zeroes and we blew layups. We had a lot of those early. It’s about those possessions where we just had these mind-numbing things that happen and it just takes away from the hard work that we’re doing on defense.

“I thought our guards did a tremendous job tonight pressuring the ball and disrupting things,” added Garner, who saw Valley Central commit 16 turnovers. “Our forwards were not as active as they need to be.”

Valley Central controlled the second half, outscoring Kingston 28-17. A nearly six-minute drought had the Tigers trailing 50-30 by midway through the fourth.

Serenity Herzog had five points, Kailey Cook scored four and Gabbie Sheth made a foul shot for Kingston. The 3-pointers were the only baskets for Guralnick and Lukaszewski.

The Tigers are idle until Saturday, Dec. 28, when it plays Pittsfield in a 10 a.m. game at the Amsterdam Holiday Tournament.