Kings Park’s Defense Too Much For Bonackers

From the opening minute, the Lady Kingsmen's powerhouse defense stonewalled East Hampton’s scoring chances while providing themselves with ample opportunities to put the game out of reach.

For most of the game, the Lady Kingsmen’s plan was executed perfectly, until the Bonackers were able to find some room and get their fast break going, cutting Kings Park’s lead to 35-27 midway through the fourth quarter. That’s when their coach called a short timeout and addressed his team at their bench.

“I told our players to wake up,” said Kingsmen head coach Tom Edmundson. “At that moment, we just had to wake up and finish our shots. At that point in the game, we couldn’t buy a basket and we weren’t making smart decisions, but the girls responded and we were able to turn it around quickly.”

Kings Park (15-4 overall), playing at home, appeared to bounce back immediately, with a big rebound from Brittany Mueller which helped get the Kingsmen’s offense reignited on an 8-0 run. Back-to-back baskets by Danielle Buoncore and Shannon Ahern gave Kings Park its double-digit lead back and the Kingsmen went on to defeat East Hampton 48-34 in one of the Suffolk County Class A playoff quarterfinals.

The Bonackers (12-7 overall) who haven’t made the playoffs or had a winning season in 17 years, were able to ride star scorer Kaelyn Ward into a rare postseason appearance although she was immediately double-teamed whenever she got near the ball.

“Marjorie Duffel and Shannon Ahern both played amazing defense on Ward, who we knew coming into the game was a big-time scorer and our main goal was to shut her down,” Edmundson said. “I was real happy with how they were able to do that.” Ward, who averaged 16 points per game this season, finished with just eight points.

Meghan Eckel and Marion Kawecki were the game’s leading scorers with 10 points each and Eckel added nine rebounds and six assists. Buoncore scored nine points and grabbed eight rebounds while Taylor Bailey dropped in seven points.

Kings Park, the three-seed in Class A, will play at two-seed Harborfields this Saturday with a time to be determined. Harborfields defeated Kings Park 46-38 in their first regular season meeting on Jan. 13 and swept the season series with a 59-39 win on Feb. 11.

“This will be the third time we’ll play Harborfields and we know what to expect,” said Edmundson. “They’re going to play us full court man, we’re going to play them tough, it’s going to be physical and if the refs let us play, it’ll be a fun game for our girls because we like to play physical.”