TIGERS COME UP SHORT
Poor shooting, mental mistakes doom Kingston girls in 35-30 loss to Newburgh
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> Kingston High’s girls struggled Monday night, letting a winnable Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association basketball game against Newburgh slip through their fingers.
The Tigers rallied from eight points back in the third quarter to make it a tight game, but eventually lost 35-30.
The setback left Kingston at 2-7 overall and 1-3 in the OCIAA’s Division 2. Newburgh is also 2-7 and 1-3.
Amya Brock had 13 points, Daysha Simmons 11 and Ameerah Cotton scored eight to lead the Goldbacks.
Kalia Hylton-Jackson had 10 points and Lexi Diers eight to pace the Tigers.
“It was frustrating,” said Kingston coach Steve Garner, who had seen his team turn in one of its best efforts of the season in a win over Washingtonville last week that had snapped a six-game losing streak. “There was just a lot of bad, bad stuff tonight. We had a fairly clean game against Washingtonville. I’m thinking, ‘Okay, we turned a corner.’ and they’re not much better than Newburgh.
“When people come into the
game, they have to step up and we were a step behind things tonight,” he added. “We shot horribly and we were turning the ball over. Once again, we miss open people and force it to people who are not open.”
Kingston had 25 turnovers and shot 24 percent (12-for-39) from the field.
The Tigers started strong, jumping out to a 6-1 lead. But Newburgh soon erased that deficit and, after Simmons hit a 3-point field goal to start the second half, had built a 23-15 advantage.
Newburgh couldn’t pull away, however, as it failed to score a basket over the next 11:30, managing just five foul shots.
Jackson, who played sparingly in the second half due to foul trouble, scored off a Trista Lukaszewski pass to begin the comeback. Diers and Serenity Herzog converted putbacks and Diers scored off a turnover to put the Tigers ahead 24-23 with 2:03 left in the third.
Newburgh would regain the lead, but a Diers layup tied the score at 30-30 with 3:17 remaining.
But Brock buried a 3-pointer from the wing to put the Goldbacks back ahead with 2:31 to go. Kingston failed to scored on its last six possessions and Brock hit two foul shots in the final 30 seconds to secure the win.
“I’d like to say it was their defense, but I’d like to say it was more us incapable of running stuff that we work on every day and just not understanding that role,” Garner remarked. “We don’t have the luxury of having an off night.”
Jackson, who had two huge rebounding performances last week against Saugerties and Washingtonville, fouled out midway through the fourth.
“We have to learn from this. We have to learn that when Kalia is not in the game, other people have to step up,” Garner said. “Kalia makes a lot of things happen, but when she’s not in the game, people have to step up.
“Our job is to get better now. We have to be better.”
Kingston is back in action Thursday, Jan. 16, with a divisional contest at MonroeWoodbury.