Kaynor Tech’s Cassie Couture drives on Kennedy’s Raegon Shirling-Davis during Kennedy’s 40-28 victory on Thursday night. (Massa/RA)
By JOE PALLADINO
The Eagles looked pretty good in the first half. The Panthers looked pretty good in the second half. Put it all together and Kennedy produced the victory.
Raegon Shirling-Davis scored a game-high 15 points, and she chipped in with five rebounds and five steals, as the Kennedy High girls improved to 2-0 with a 40-28 win over Kaynor Tech on Thursday night at Dick Ierardi Gymnasium.
Also helping the Eagles was Joyce Benton, with nine points, six steals, and four assists, and Yakira Davis, with eight points and six boards.
“I liked the ball movement and the help defense,” said Shirling-Davis about the Eagles. “We have worked on that a lot in practice. We could have held them to less points in the second half, but, overall I think we did great.”
“I think we passed the ball a lot better,” Benton said. “We have people open, and we were sharing the ball.”
There was one thing the Eagles did not contain, however, and that was Kaynor Tech’s Egypt Santos. She scored only six points, but Santos grabbed 20 rebounds, added four blocked shots, and also had three steals. She made the difference for a better Kaynor team in the last 16 minutes.
“In the locker room, Coach Brian’s (Stasaitis) speeches help us pull it together,” Santos said. “In the first half we did not play like we were supposed to.”
Sarah Wisniewski led the Panthers (0-1) with 10 points, and Tamira Machado grabbed nine boards.
KENNEDY 40, KAYNOR TECH 28
Kennedy (2-0): Raegon Shirling-Davis 5 1 15, Joyce Benton 4 1 9, Kiara Davis 0 0 0, Ashley Lamb 1 2 4, Yakira Edwards 4 0 8, Hannah West 1 0 2, Shyan Perez 1 0 2. Totals: 17 4 40.
Kaynor Tech (0-1): Zhanise Arline 0 0 0, Cassie Couture 1 3 5, Jill Ducham 0 0 0, Egypt Santos 1 4 6, Maggie DeSantis 0 3 3, Jamie Strileckis 0 0 0, Tamira Machado 2 0 4, Sarah Wisniewski 3 4 10. Totals: 7 14 28.
Kennedy 15 10 4 11 — 40
Kaynor Tech 3 5 7 13 — 28
3-point goals: KT— none ; K— Shirling-Davis 2.