Kenston stops Mayfield in girls basketball

Host Kenston toppled Mayfield, 42-33, in a Western Reserve Conference matchup. The Bombers improved to 4-0 in the league ahead of an important matchup with North.

Playing Mayfield on senior night historically hasn’t been kind to the Kenston girls basketball team.

Whether the game is at Mayfield or at Kenston, mixing in the words “senior night” usually doesn’t work for the Bombers.

Toss in the potential distraction of defending league champion North three days later? That added a whole new dimension to the stress level of Kenston coach John Misenko.

Much to his delight, the Bombers handled everything

KENSTON 42, MAYFIELD 33

in front of them on Jan. 27.

Kate Haynes had her first career double-double (12 points, 13 rebounds), Ramsey Smith added 14 points and the Bombers beat the Wildcats, 42-33.

The win puts Kenston (10-2, 4-0 WRC) into its Jan. 30 game against North on a high note.

“I’ll take a win in the WRC any night,” Misenko said with a sigh of relief. “We generally don’t play well against Mayfield on senior night. I’ll take a win whenever we can get it.”

Kenston never trailed and led at one point by 15 points. But no one in the blue and white was breathing easy until the buzzer read 0:00, allowing Kenston to finally turn its attention to North.

“I think it will be an exciting one,” Haynes said. “They’re one of our bigger rivals. The ‘W’ tonight is motivation to do it again on Saturday.”

Despite trailing the entire night, Mayfield (9-9) was in pretty good shape at halftime when it only trailed, 23-17.

However, Mayfield went on a 10-2 run in the third quarter to stretch things out, starting with a Smith left-handed runner in the lane and ending with consecutive coastto-coast layups by Smith and Haynes that opened a 33-19 lead.

“Giving up the big run in the third really hurt us,” said Mayfield coach Ryan Looman.

Nevertheless, the Wildcats went on a run of their own to narrow the margin to 39-33 on a Hannah Peterson hook shot with 2:20 left in the game. But Kenston’s Catara DeJarnette answered 30 second later with a hook shot her own, then stole two passes in the final minute of the game to thwart Mayfield scoring opportunities.

Kenston only scored one point in the final 90 seconds of the game — Haynes split two free throws — but the Bombers’ defense kept Mayfield off the scoreboard.

“I don’t know how many points she had, but she did a great job of handling the ball and setting up people - AND she guarded Uriah Jennings,” Misenko said of DeJarnette (12 points, five steals, three assists). “Just because she’s not scoring doesn’t mean she’s not impacting the game. I’ve said I think she’s the best guard in the area, and that hasn’t changed.”

Misenko pointed to many players for their contributions, from DeJarnette’s playmaking to the scoring of Smith and Haynes to Molly Hubert’s buckets to Micayla Paglia’s defense on Mayfield’s Ashley Deardon.

“It was a really good team win,” Misenko said.

Jennings had a gamehigh 15 for Mayfield (9-9, 2-2 WRC), but no one else had more than six points.

“The defensive game plan checklist worked for us,” Looman sad. “On the offensive end, we’ve got to put the ball in the hoop.”