MERCER COUNTY BASKETBALL Hickory rallies to top K.C.

The Hornets improved their record to 6-1.
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Saturday's backyard meeting in the Mercer County Athletic Conference between Hickory and Kennedy Catholic was a game of runs.
With Kennedy holding a 32-28 lead and the game on the line, Hickory had its final scoring spurt as the Hornets scored the final eight points to pull away to a 36-32 victory.
"It was definitely a defensive battle," said Hickory coach Jeanette Whitehead. "Both teams struggled from the outside, but on defense is where we prevailed in the end."
Despite coming out on the short end of the final score, Kennedy coach Pat Mastrian felt his club gave it everything it had.
"I thought our kids played extremely hard and when you have a game between two clubs that know each other so well, you just have to suck it up, play as hard as you can and hope that you come out on top," he said.
While Whitehead pointed to defense as the Hornets' key to the win and a 6-1 record, Mastrian felt that turnovers and missed opportunities, possibly due to the Hornet defensive pressure, had the biggest impact.
"With our point guard [Hallie Arena] out, we were rushing the ball a little and that hurt us," said Mastrian. "We just have not had enough time to work on our execution and that showed today against a good team. I think that [better execution] will come along for us as time goes on."
Scores big points
Hickory point guard Sarah Gill, who played her freshman season at Kennedy (4-1), scored six points to fuel the final 8-0 run.
"I didn't really look at it as a do-or-die situation," said Gill about the final four minutes. "I wasn't concentrating on the score and just trying to play my regular game. I felt if I could score, that would get our offense going. As for playing Kennedy, I just tried to face it as any other game that we wanted to win."
Before Gill's late-game heroics, Mastrian felt that his club wasted an opportunity.
"There was a point in the game when we had the lead [32-28], there was a loose ball, but we couldn't come up with it," he said. "They were able to swing it back out to hit a 3 and that put them right where they wanted to be."
Following the six points from Gill, Hickory post player Deandrea Evans sealed the win with a pair of free throws. For the game, Evans finished with a game-high 16 points. For Kennedy, Leah Mastrian was the only Golden Eagle in doubles with 13.
"She played solid on both sides of the ball today," said Whitehead of Evans. "She gave me what I needed early with her inside play and she stayed consistent on the boards.
"Kennedy has nice size, and for us to be effective, we were hoping that we could pound it inside and take it to them and Evans was ready for it," Whitehead added. "When she [Evans] was out, Kirsten Dickman [2] and Jessica Pissini [5] came in and played aggressive in there, as well."