KFHS girls nail 10-0 record to end 2015
Published 5:01 pm Saturday, January 2, 2016
The King’s Fork High School girls’ basketball team welcomed the new year with a perfect record following a good performance at the Boo Williams/Ronald Curry Christmas Classic this week.
The Lady Bulldogs improved to 10-0 on the season, now the only elite girls’ team in the area that remains undefeated. They got there by going 3-0 in the Hampton-based Classic, winning its Silver Division when they handed St. Anne’s-Belfield School a 64-62 loss on Wednesday.
“The first two nights, I wasn’t happy with our performance,” King’s Fork coach Maurice Fofana said. But against the Lady Saints, “They came out and played well.”
He noted that this good play included particularly good defense. The Lady Bulldogs also finished around the basket and avoided turning the ball over.
Their shooting at the free throw line — 9-for-20 — was subpar, “but outside of that, I think that we did everything else that we needed to do,” Fofana said.
King’s Fork led 10-9 after the first period, 27-21 at the half and 46-40 after three quarters.
Though the Lady Saints won the fourth quarter 22-18, Fofana said his team’s defense was still strong. The Lady Bulldogs were just running a lot of offensive sets, trying to hang on after two of their starters had fouled out.
Junior guard Cydney Nichols led King’s Fork with 16 points, adding 11 rebounds, while junior forward Amesha Miller contributed 15 points and 14 rebounds. Sophomore point guard Camary Harris registered 12 points, six assists, five steals and four rebounds and senior forward Latonia Thomas added 10 points.
For the Silver Division, Harris was named the tournament MVP, and Miller made the all-tournament team.
On Tuesday, the Lady Bulldogs won 42-41 against Central Bucks High School West out of Pennsylvania.
“We shot the ball poorly,” Fofana said after noting his team made only one three-pointer in the game. “We kind of played into the hands of what (the Lady Bucks) wanted to do.”
They worked well with a slower tempo, while King’s Fork would have benefited from a quickened pace.
The Lady Bulldogs ended the first quarter with 12 points, then scored seven in the second, with only two baskets made from the field. They produced 12 points in the third and 11 in the fourth.
Miller finished with 12 points, and Harris had 10 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals.
King’s Fork defeated Osbourn Park High School 54-48 on Monday.
“We kind of played at the pace that we wanted to play, but we shot the ball poorly,” Fofana said, estimating the percentage from the floor at 35 percent.
Nichols again led the Lady Bulldogs with 17 points, while Miller had 14 points and Harris recorded 10 points, seven assists and five steals.
Fofana praised Harris for her consistent impact at both ends of the floor during the tourney, working hard to get everyone involved offensively, while guarding one of the opposing team’s top players.
King’s Fork hosts Oscar Smith High School on Tuesday.