Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Strong start sparks Rustin to victory
Golden Knights explode in first half, roll over Kennett in critical league win
WESTTOWN >> If Thursday night’s Ches-Mont League American Division game was turned into a movie script for Kennett, it would have to be titled “Nightmare on Shiloh Road.” The Blue Demons couldn’t buy a basket if they had Warren Buffet’s money. They were held scorless in the first quarter, and never got into the game.
Meanwhile, West Chester Rustin took control from the start and capped a huge week with a convincing 46-19 victory.
The Golden Knights moved to 6-1 in the division (9-7 overall), and remained tied with Oxford for the top spot.
“We talked about how big this week was on Monday,” said Rustin coach Jim Powers. “It was an important week, they worked hard, and we were lucky to get two [wins].”
The young Blue Demons (4-3, 8-7), who have just three seniors on their roster, must have felt like they were having a dream that they were falling into a bucket of water, and kept sinking deeper.
The first quarter started slowly for both teams, with Maggie O’Hare’s 3-pointer at the 5:45 mark marking the first points for either squad. While points were
coming, albeit grudgingly for Rustin, Kennett missed all 13 of its shots from the floor, and fell into an abyss that they couldn’t get out of.
O’Hare and Lexi Zavitsky combined for all but two of the Golden Knights’ firstquarter points as they built a 16-0 advantage after one.
Kennett surprised Rustin, 44-35, in their first meeting on Dec. 15, which was something they were on guard not to let happen again.
“We were pumped for the game,” said O’Hare. “We came out strong and worked really well together as a team in the first quarter and the whole game. We just really wanted to come back and get our win.”
The struggles continued for the Blue Demons in the second quarter. They finally got on the board on a free throw by Rosemarie Mastronardo with 3:04 left to trail, 18-1. They didn’t break the field goal drought until there was under a minute to go in the half. Alexa Hussey scored from close in. As a team, they went 1-for-21 in the half.
“We have some limitations, and Rustin exposed those limtations today,” said Kennett coach Vince Cattano. “Our girls play hard and have had some success this season, but we’re young and Rustin made a statement today.
“When we caught them earlier in the year, that caught some people by surprise, but we knew what we were walking into. The more talented team won.”
Rustin had the big lead, but it wasn’t exactly museum quality for them either. They missed some open shots that could’ve opened the lead wider.
“Concentration,” Powers said when asked about the missed shots. “I think we got up big early and we lost concentration and focusing on scoring. We were getting to the basket had some layups with no one around you and missed. We lost focus on the offensive end.”
When sophomore Andrea Prestianne opened the second half with a basket, there was a glimmer of hope that a comeback was starting to brew. But, the misses started back up again, and Rustin kept Kennett at arm’s length.
Rustin’s defense should be credited with some of Kennett’s shooting woes, an aspect of the game that had surged lately, much to Powers’ delight.
“Happy with the defense lately, they’ve really worked hard at it,” he said. “They did a real good job Tuesday at Oxford, and they came back tonight and had a similar effort. The defense is coming around for us.”
O’Hare finished with 19 points, while Zavitsky had 10 and Becca Magrone made a trio of 3-pointers in the fourth for nine points.
Prestianne and Hussey had six points each for the Blue Demons.
Rustin visits Sun Valley on Tuesday, while Kennett has a nonleague game at Blue Mountain on Saturday, before getting back into division play at Great Valley on Tuesday.
“You wipe the slate clean, you don’t even talk about this one at practice, and you move on,” said Cattano.