Kingston splits weekend series amid busy stretch

Kingston High’s girls basketball team split a home weekend series with the Tigers winning on Friday night and losing Saturday afternoon.

The Tigers snapped a threegame losing streak and earned their third win of the season Friday, defeating Middletown 42-33 in an Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 1 contest. They fell to Bethlehem 54-23 in a non-league Saturday affair.

Kingston is now 3-12 overall and 2-4 in the division heading into Monday’s OCIAA game at Pine Bush.

Kalia Hylton-Jackson had a big weekend for Kingston. On Friday she scored 12 of her 16 points in the second half and also grabbed 10 rebounds.

“I was being more aggressive, because I only had two fouls,” noted Jackson, who tends to get early fouls and foul out often. “It feels good to not foul out of a game that I knew we had.”

She had three fouls before the first quarter ended Saturday. She sat out the second period that had the Tigers managing just two points and falling into a 38-9 hole. Jackson played much of the

second half, finishing with eight rebounds and 17 of her team’s 23 points.

Lexi Diers carried the team in the first half Friday, scoring 10 points. Serenity Herzog came off the bench for seven big points

in the second quarter.

“Kalia played really well. I thought Lexi played a pretty composed game and Serenity gave us a big lift,” Kingston coach Steve Garner said Friday. “Overall, I was pleased.”

Kiki Kennedy had 20 points to carry the Middies, who beat the Tigers by 26 two months ago.

The Tigers jumped out to

a 10-2 lead and never looked back. Kingston led by 11 at the half. Middletown never got closer than five in the second half.

Jackson had picked up her second foul early in the second quarter, but that didn’t deter her. She had eight of her rebounds in the second half and scored all of the Tigers’ six points in the fourth.

The sophomore forward, who was playing point guard during one stretch of the game, muscled against a double-team for a basket in the fourth. She scored on a putback, then later snagged a long rebound and went coast-to-coast to open a 4229 advantage.

“We have those stretches,” said Garner, noting recent inconsistent

play. “Tonight, when we had those stretches, they didn’t capitalize.”

Bethlehem (6-10) did just that Saturday, scoring 14 points off 16 firsthalf Kingston turnovers. The Tigers finished with 28 turnovers, 18 of them unforced.

Whoever the Eagles put into the game came through. Bethlehem had

nine players scoring at least three points. Sophomore Maren Louridas and Julia Harvey had 10 points apiece and Caroline Wise had nine to lead the way.

Bethlehem shot 15-for-27 (56 percent) from the field in the first half.

“Whoever they brought in pretty much wanted to be aggressive and score,” Garner remarked.