For the final time, the Kenston Bombers visited the Chardon Hilltoppers in The Barn as Western Reserve Conference opponents.
Game photos click here.
For the final time, the Kenston Bombers visited the Chardon Hilltoppers in The Barn as Western Reserve Conference opponents.
At the end of this season, both teams will go their separate ways — the Bombers entering the Suburban League, the Hilltoppers becoming the newest members of the Chagrin Valley Conference.
Before looking ahead to future schedules, both teams entered the new year still searching for their first WRC win Jan. 3.
With a target on their backs, the Bombers began their quest to repeat as conference champions, while the Hilltoppers looked to overcome a missing piece in their starting lineup, as senior guard Cameron Gerlica was sidelined due to illness.
Kenston led from beginning to end and got the 54-33.
The teams split the series last year with a 46-44 victory for the Bombers, then a 25-point win for the Hilltoppers five days later.
Leading Bombers scorer Morgan Cicek opened the scoring with a transition 3-pointer after senior small forward Aurora Young won the opening tip over Selina Sparker.
Young followed with a steal and a basket of her own, quickly pushing the Bombers to a 5-0 lead. Another transition three extended the advantage to eight.
The Hilltoppers got on the board when senior guard Lilliana Dillworth knocked down a pair of free throws. After the lead was cut in half, fifth-year head coach Erik Hoenigman called his first timeout of the contest.
Leading 16-10, the Bombers had a strong run to finish the first quarter, and a balanced attack offensively, with four Bombers scoring. Cicek led all scorers with eight. Coming into the contest, she was averaging 13.6 points per game. This member of the All-Conference team a season ago is off to a quick start.
With experience off the bench, the Bombers were able to stretch their lead to 11 at the half. Leading the way offensively was Cicek with a team-high 18 points, while Young added six.
Dillworth paced the Hilltoppers with eight points, and Sparker contributed with five.
“Our game plan was definitely to not come out too flat, come out with energy, come ready to play, and to be physical,” Young said. “We knew Chardon was a physical team, and we knew we needed to match that.”
A strong 6-2 run by the Hilltoppers to open the third quarter pulled them within nine. Sophomore Ava Arnold scored six key points, but for every run the Hilltoppers made, junior Kait Paystrup had an answer for the team of 14th-year head coach Kevin Hinkle. Paystrup scored eight points alone, while the entire Hilltoppers team scored nine.
“It’s great when everyone scores and when everyone helps out,” Cicek said. “It’s a team win, and that’s what we love: we want everyone to feel like they are a part of it, and I think tonight we had a big team win.”
A team win is exactly what the Bombers did. Outsourcing their opponent 26-15 in the second half, the Bombers celebrated a run-away victory and picked up their first conference win of the season, 54-33.
With the win, the Bombers improved to 5-5 overall, while the Hilltoppers fell to 4-7.
Of the five Kenston athletes in the scorer’s book, Cicek led with 22 points. Young and Paystrup added 15 and 10, respectively, junior Emily Grubich added four, and sophomore Trinity Osterman chipped in with three.
On the other side, the Hilltoppers were led by Dillworth with 10 points, while Sparker and Arnold added eight and six points, respectively. Freshman Kennedy Roesch contributed during some early varsity minutes in her career, adding four points. Gabby Camino pitched in three, while Capri DuFour added two.
Despite a short bench, Coach Hoenigman looked positively on the work that he saw from his team, and is already preparing for the next matchup later this month.
“We haven’t had a big bench, but I felt like we had enough coming into the game,” he said.
“We battled,” said Dillworth after the game. “We gave it all we had, and we do play them again. I told the team going into the locker room to not hang their heads, that we have been down way more. It just comes down to who wants it more, and tonight, Kenston wanted it more.”
