By Jeremy McDonald
jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
TUALATIN, Ore.– Kennedy didn’t let the second quarter of their season opener defeat to Neah-Kah-Nie. Hold them down at the Westside Winter Jam Thursday night.
The Trojans went into the halftime break down 31-15 to the Pirates and had all the momentum against them. The offense went cold after Kennedy jumped out to a 10-2 lead to start the game, but overall the little things were stacking up against the Trojans in the tournament game going into the second half at Horizon Christian High School.
But, they kept fighting. They came out more aggressive in the second half and slowly began to piece things together. For a new look squad, Kennedy still had that Kennedy-drive to them as they made a late push, getting the game back down to single-digits with 1:28 left in the game at 51-42 following a Brandon Sucich three-pointer after being down 20 early in the second half. Sucich led the squad with 23 points and made five three-pointers in the 53-42 defeat to the 3A Pirates.
“That’s what I’m most excited about is that second half, after we had such a flat second quarter, we could’ve just thrown in the towel, but we didn’t. So our guys showed a lot of fight. That little zone they put on us in the second quarter, we got a lot of good guys who are making the jump up to Varsity for their first real minutes and it flustered us a little bit,” starts Trojan Head Coach Karl Schmidtman. “But I thought we handled it a little better in the second half, and we played as the aggressor for much of the second half. A lot of that comes with experience.
“As the guys get more comfortable with whatever is thrown at them, they’ll play as the aggressor’s and not play on their heels like we did in the second quarter tonight.”
Kennedy will play St. Mary’s of Medford on Friday at 5 pm at Westside Christian on Tigard.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
