Employees Photograph / Brian Yauger Kennedy junior Addy Odille appears to be like for an open lane earlier than driving to the basket within the Eagles' 53-42 win over Cornerstone Christian.
MINERAL RIDGE — Youth hasn't been an impediment for Kennedy's backcourt all season, so why ought to the event be any totally different?
In freshman Didi Ryan and sophomore Gianna Pompelia's first appearances on the district stage, the pair didn’t disappoint, scoring 21 and 25 factors in a 53-42 win over Cornerstone Christian within the Division IV Mineral Ridge District semifinals on Wednesday.
Heading into the sport, Eagles coach Marc Morgan was a bit of involved about how his youthful women would deal with the adversity of postseason basketball, however for all the 32 minutes, it felt like Kennedy was in management. Every run on the cornerstone was matched by an Eagles run within the order.
“My greatest worry was that none of those children have ever performed on this atmosphere and by no means made it this far, so that you're all like, 'How are we going to do that? What are we doing?' It’s a must to push by way of,” Morgan mentioned. “Are issues not going nicely for us? What do we’ve to do to get the bucket? The entire pondering pissed me off as a result of we've by no means been by way of it, so hopefully now we all know how one can do it and it’ll transfer us ahead. We’ve to beat the defending champions.”
Now that the preliminary anxiousness is out of the way in which, it's about maximizing these younger gamers.
“I imply, I've mentioned it earlier than, the ceiling is ridiculous,” Morgan mentioned. “(Ryan) and (Pompelia) have been completely loopy. That's the purpose. It's all about making baskets and taking part in video games. You probably have equal groups, who can do it? And that's actually the purpose. It's not 'Who's going to do it?' It's 'Who Can?' And I actually thought these two had turned up at our place.'
Simply earlier than the postseason started, Kennedy acquired his wake-up name. Within the common season finale in opposition to league rival Rootstown, the Eagles suffered an uncharacteristic 62-29 loss.
Nonetheless, issues have modified since Kennedy took his drugs.
“After we performed Rootstown we completely acquired hammered and it was like an actual reset,” Morgan mentioned. “We’ve to get again on the market and begin doing the little issues. Doing what we do nicely, engaged on it. That complete Rootstown recreation was a turnaround. It actually confirmed us, 'Hey, possibly we’ve to perform a little extra work to get what we would like. I'm not simply going to point out up and win these video games as a result of we're higher, we've acquired to do what we have to do. I feel that was a giant stepping stone for us.”
A battle of the titans is ready for Saturday. A Springfield group that has made a number of deep postseason runs within the latest previous in opposition to a Kennedy group that wasn't intimidated by the massive stage.
If the Eagles can play with the identical willpower they confirmed in opposition to Cornerstone Christian, Morgan likes these possibilities.
“Can we play the sport we performed at this time? We’ve to have the ability to do it,” Morgan mentioned. “Clearly we’ve to get different folks concerned in opposition to a group of that measurement. We’ve to have the ability to cease them inside after which hopefully our protection will lead us.”
Kickoff in opposition to the Tigers is ready for 7 p.m
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