Kennedy Boys Knock Out Lakeland In Opening Round

SOMERS—All season long, Kennedy Catholic boys basketball coach Frank Kelly has wanted more from his defense, and now that the Class A playoffs have started, they have certainly delivered.

The top-seeded Gaels (17-2, 10-0) limited 17th-seeded Lakeland High to just 11 first half points and pulled away with an easy 58-37 opening-round win.

“Our defense played very, very well,” Kelly said. “I know I tell you every week I wasn’t happy, but I’m glad to tell you that this week, I was happy.”

With their full court man-to-man pressure defense stifling the Hornets, the Gaels jumped out to 20-5 first quarter lead and never looked back. By the time the half came around, the Gaels were up 32-11 and the game was all but over.

“We absolutely smothered them,” Kelly said. “They couldn’t get off what they wanted to get off…the defensive pressure dictated the tempo.”

Offensively the Gaels were led by Dan Healy who finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds and Ryan Hickey who added 13 points.

“Healy did pretty good, he was scoring inside,” Kelly said. “They have a tall team, our game plan was to make sure our bigs do well against their bigs, and he did well.”

When their starting guard Frank Kelly was forced to leave the game early after having his teeth knocked out, the Gaels got strong performances from Kyle Tabulsy, Billy Kelly and Eric Madonna who all filled in at guard.

“That was good, we came out with a lot of energy,” Kelly said. “Frank got hurt, knocked his teeth out, I think the kids kind of rallied up even stronger at that point.”

Kelly singled out Billy Kelly, Chris Powers and Madonna for their defensive effort, as they worked to limit Lakeland’s leading scorer Alex Perlman to just five points.

While Kelly was happy with the entire team’s defensive effort, he did single out his guards for their play against Lakeland’s leading scorer Alex Perlman.

“Eric Madonna, Billy Kelly and Chris Powers did very well on defense,” Kelly said. “We smothered their leading scorer, he only had five points and they came at the end of the game.”

Kennedy was scheduled to play a quarterfinal game on Tuesday against ninth-seeded Rye High at home. The winner of that game advances to the semifinals, to be played at the Westchester County Center sometime between March 1st and March 4th.

KENNEDY CATHOLIC 58
Lakeland 37