By Steve Ritchie and James Day
Senior leadership. Veteran coaches. Rising stars. The Kennedy High girls basketball team had it all this season.
The Trojans finished a storybook 29-1 season on March 3 with a 53-40 win against defending champion Monroe in the Class 2A tournament championship game in Pendleton. It was the second state title in three years for the program.
“It feels absolutely amazing,” said co-coach Peter Hall, who shares coaching duties with his wife Kerry. “The group that’s in the locker room now is just the best group of basketball players in Kennedy history. Their resiliency is just off the charts. If they were to have lost this game, they’d be saying ‘when do we get to play again?’ They love being together and playing together. The leadership from our six seniors is out of this world.”
The Trojans, who took out Heppner 52-19 and Faith Bible 52-42 on the way to the title game, never trailed after the first quarter against Monroe and led by as many as 15 points. Kennedy went 3-0 against Monroe this season. Its only loss was against Dayton, which won the 3A title.
Senior Kaylin Cantu scored 12 points against Monroe, while sophomore post Sophia Carley added 11 points, 10 rebounds and three assists. But the list of contributors on this squad was long.
Junior Kalyssa Kleinschmit added nine points and six rebounds. Senior Hannah Arritola scored seven points and nine rebounds. Senior Kaylee Brown came off the bench to sink a pair of 3-pointers. And everyone shot well at the line, a must in high-pressure tournament games. Carley was 5 for 5, Kleinschmit was 2-2, Cantu was 4 for 5 and Arritola was 3 for 4. The Trojans were 14 for 17 at the line.
“This is so awesome getting to do it again and working so hard since our freshman year,” said senior point guard Molly Jaeger. “We just played our game.”
Which started with defense. Kennedy led all entrants in scoring defense, field goal percentage defense and 3-point percentage defense. The Trojans limited opponents to 33.7 points per game while averaging 52.3.
Individually, Carley finished eighth in scoring (37 points, an 11.3 average), second in rebounding (28), and first in offensive boards (17). Kleinschmit was 10th with 32 points (10.7 per game) and fifth in shooting (11 for 19, 57.9 percent) and Kennedy had three of the top seven foul shooters, with Kleinschmit and Cantu at 75 percent and Arritola at 72.7. Carley was a first-team all-tournament pick, while Kleinschmit earned second team honors.
Co-coach Kerry Hall noted contributions that went beyond the players and coaches.
“The community support has been overwhelming,” she said. “And not just the crowd (for the title game) but the support we’ve had from the beginning of the season for many years. We couldn’t have done what we’ve done without the support we’ve had. Jodi Arritola, Karen Jaeger and all the other moms making sure the kids are fed and have water. To see the amount of people who made the long drive over to see these girls play is just amazing.”
The Kennedy boys, meanwhile, finished fourth at Pendleton, falling to eventual champion Columbia Christian 58-45 in its opener but rallying to take down Knappa 55-50 and Grant Union 54-45.
“We were a little disappointed with our effort on the first day,” said coach Karl Schmidtman, “but since then our mental toughness and team play was great.” That mental toughness was never more present than down the stretch against Grant Union when the Trojans went on a 9-2 game-clinching run, sealed by a dunk by 6-3 sophomore Emorej Lynk.
“It was defense,” Lynk said. “Just getting stops and looking up the court and finding the open man. We all did a good job of getting out and running.”
Lynk, who was named first team all-tournament, finished third in scoring in the boys tournament with 40 points, a 13.3 average. Lynk also had 28 rebounds (third) and led the tournament in minutes played with 96. He played every minute of the three games and two of his teammates also made the iron man list. Rocco Carley was tied for third with 80 and Luke Hall was fifth with 79.
Carley tied for third in shooting at 57.9 percent (11 for 19), while Carson Hall (third at 90 percent) and Luke Hall (fifth at 76.9 percent) were among the top free throw shooters.
The future looks bright for the boys with Lynk, both Halls, Carley and Nick Suing all returning.
