With its 43-36 win at Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin on Tuesday, Kirtland added another impressive win to its resume heading into next weekend’s sectional tournament draw.
The Hornets improved to 16-0 with three wins over Division I schools and four over Division II programs.
“It’s a very big win,” said Kirtland coach Bob Bell of the road win over a strong Division II program. ‘We’ve had several of them now this year against some Division II schools and some DIs too. It was a hard-fought game. The girls really played well.”
Five different Hornets scored in the first quarter to help Kirtland build a 10-4 lead. Sydney Snyder then scored six of her game-high 17 in the second, with four coming from the free throw line, as the Hornets extended their advantage to 23-15 at halftime.
“It was a defensive battle,” Bell said. “They threw their best defense at Sydney. She worked for every point she got and she still ended up with 17, which was phenomenal.”
As always, the Hornets played aggressively on defense to keep the Lions from working their way back into the game.
Their effort in boxing out and pulling down rebounds was a key to limiting NDCL’s second chance opportunities.
“What’s really impressive against a team that takes a lot of pride in rebounding is we had Sydney Snyder with nine rebounds, Jenna Sayle with eight rebounds, Lauren Lutz with seven and Amber Yurick with seven,” Bell said. “They all played so hard.”
Lutz finished with nine points, Sayle had eight, Lauren Snyder contributed with five and Katie McCollister and Yurick both finished with two.
McCollister also led the Hornets with five assists.
“She’s been doing an incredible job for us with her floor play and getting the ball in scoring position for us,” Bell said. “She had a great game.”
Kirtland travels to Fairport Harding on Wednesday.
Kirtland 43, NDCL 36
Kirtland (16-0): L. Snyder 5, McCollister 2, Sayle 8, S. Snyder 17, Yurick 2, Lutz 9
NDCL (10-5): DeJohn 11, Uhran 1, Salem 2, Hammer 9, Sarkisian 2, Libatore 3, Shaughnessy 8
Free throws: Kirtland 13 of 28, NDCL 7 of 10; 3-pointers: Kirtland 2 (Sayle, L.Snyder), NDCL 7 (DeJohn 3, Shaughnessy 2, Hammer 2).
