Kendall girls best Lyons in C2 quarterfinal

By Mike Wertman, Sports Writer Posted 26 February 2022 at 9:08 pm

Photos by Cheryl Wertman – Kendall’s Julia Szczepanski reaches to grab a rebound away from the Lyons duo of Kara Stephens (5) and Jayla Bell (12) during the host Lady Eagles sectional victory this evening.

Leading from wire to wire, No. 4 seed Kendall downed visiting No. 5 Lyons 48-39 this evening in the quarterfinal round of the Section V Class C2 tournament.

Julia Szczepanski scored 15, Kailie Regan 13 and Alezya Brown 12 to lead the balanced attack for Kendall as T’Mia Kitchings added 4 and Emma Allen and Lauren Pilon 2 each. Szczepanski also grabbed off 15 rebounds, Regan 14 and Brown 11.

Kamryn Bonnell scored 14, Imani Harder 9 and Jayla Bell 8 to pace Lyons.

Szczepanski scored 8 and Regan 5 in the opening period to spark Kendall out to an 11 point, 17-6, lead.

The Lady Eagles maintained an eight point, 27-19, lead at the half as Brown and Regan both scored 4 in the second period.

Getting points from five players, Lyons battled back to within three, 32-29, at the end of the third period.

Kendall did move back out to a nine point, 42-33, lead with just over two minutes to go by outscoring Lyons 10-4 over the first six minutes of the final period. Szczepanski hit two jumpers, Kitchings a three and Regan a rebound basket during that key run.

However, Lyons came battling back one more time with a 5-0 run including two free throws and a layup by Harder to rally back to within four, 42-38, with 1:40 to go.

Kendall though turned back the challenge by putting together a clutch closing 6-1 run to lock up the win. Brown had a rebound bucket and three free throws to highlight that clinching scoring spurt to close out the 48-39 win.

Improving to 16-5, Kendall will next face top seeded Pavilion in the semifinals on Wednesday at a site to be determined.

Lyndonville will play Tuesday at Avon

No. 6 seed Lyndonville will face No. 2 York in a Class C3 semifinal game at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Avon.