Preview: Kennedy Knights vs. West Milford Highlanders
The Kennedy Knights will be playing at home against the West Milford Highlanders at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. Hopefully Kennedy focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 32 on Tuesday.
Kennedy suffered their biggest defeat yet this season on Tuesday. Their tough 52-30 defeat to Eastside might stick with them for a while. While losing is never fun, Kennedy can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' New Jersey basketball rankings (they are ranked 182nd, while Eastside is ranked 26th).
Despite the loss, Kennedy had strong showings from Zahniya Castillo, who dropped a double-double on 13 points and ten rebounds, and My'Shayla Clancy, who dropped a double-double on 13 points and 13 rebounds. That was a full 43.3% of Kennedy's points, marking the eighth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points.
Meanwhile, West Milford had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 11 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They took their matchup at home with ease, bagging a 51-20 win over Passaic County Tech. For those keeping track at home, that's the biggest win West Milford has posted since December 16, 2023.
West Milford found their leader in underclassman Sarah Benowitz, who scored 16 points along with two steals. That's the first time this season that Benowitz scored 15 or more points. Another player making a difference was Laurel Space, who scored seven points along with nine rebounds and six assists.
Kennedy's defeat ended a five-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 8-7. As for West Milford, they pushed their record up to 7-5 with that victory, which was their third straight at home.
Keep an eye on the arc in Saturday's match: Kennedy have been dynamite from deep this season, having made 37.3% of their threes per game. It's a different story for West Milford, though, as they've only nailed 32% of their threes per game this season. Given Kennedy's sizeable advantage in that area, West Milford will need to find a way to close that gap.
Kennedy strolled past West Milford in their previous meeting back in January of 2015 by a score of 54-37. Will Kennedy repeat their success, or does West Milford have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
