Kingston boys win 6th straight
Kingston wins 6th straight, downs Monroe-Woodbury
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> Kingston High made it six wins in a row and notched victory number 11 Thursday night, defeating Monroe-Woodbury 68-51 in an Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Division I boys basketball game at Kate Walton Field House.
The Tigers, now 2-1 in the division and 11-1 overall, will host Poughkeepsie Saturday at 6 p.m. in the conclusion of a hoop quadrupleheader. The girls play Troy in a junior varsity game at 1, followed by the varsity girls at approximately 2:30. The JV boys take on Poughkeepsie at 4.
“All for all, we did what we needed to do and now get ready for Poughkeepsie,” Kingston coach Ron Kelder said. “I wanted to make sure we were healthy. I wasn’t going to go crazy and try to make the game like helter skelter, up and down, and try to score 80. It just wasn’t the night to do that. It was a night to try to take care of what we can take care of and get ready for Saturday’s game. It’s going to be another good home game here and another challenge.”
The Tigers beat the Pioneers 71-66 on the road on Dec. 28.
Brian Moore led the way for Kingston with 24 points and 6 assists. Shy’quan Royal had another all-around effort with 11 points, 8 assists, 8 rebounds, 4 steals and a pair of blocks.
The Tigers’ balanced attack also featured Jimmy Moot (9 points, 8 rebounds), Garrett Warnecke (7 points), Brady Short (6 points), Chris Bamba
(6 points) and Daivel Jackson (5 points, 9 rebounds, one block).
Pablo Quinones came off the bench to hit three 3-point field goals and score a team-high 12 points and Conor Coffey added 11 to lead Monroe.
The game was a nodoubter with Kingston taking a 13-4 advantage in the first quarter. The Crusaders closed to within 27-23 with 17 seconds left in the first half, but Short buried a 3-pointer at the buzzer to help the Tigers regain control.
“After we got on a little run, they called a timeout and coach Kelder told us to pick up the pace and stay unselfish and don’t let no backdoor cuts and stuff go down, just keep the momentum on our side,” Royal said.
Kingston, which had 11 turnovers in the first half, cleaned up its act and lost the ball just three times the rest of the way.
Moore opened the second half by finding Royal on the right wing for a trey, then bounced a long lead pass for a Jackson bucket. Moore followed with a foul shot, scored on a baseline drive, then assisted on Moot’s dunk to widen the margin to 40-27.
Royal, who came close to a triple-double, has been enjoying life as the Tigers’ starting point guard in his debut varsity season. The sophomore has been the perfect backcourt complement to Moore
“I’m loving it,” the sophomore said. “I’m just happy, because it’s my first year. I just wanted to come up here and show who I am, really.”
“We weren’t really perfect, but I thought we defended really well at times,” said Kelder, who never saw the team switch gears and put the game away.
“The sense of urgency at times wasn’t just ... We had a level of confidence and just played with that level of confidence,” he said. “We were okay with what was going on. I don’t think we were ever threatened and we just played through it and just kind of grinded it out and found a way to just win an ugly one.”