Kokomo’s girls basketball team tried to slow down high-scoring Logansport on Saturday.
The Wildkats’ zone defense worked wonders in the first quarter, but once the Berries’ shots started falling, they showed just how tough they can be to beat.
The defending North Central Conference champions broke open a close game with a huge run to end the first half and start the second to catapult them to a 62-34 win at Memorial Gym.
Kokomo coach Jason Snyder described Logan’s offensive onslaught as a “buzzsaw.” The Berries closed the second half with a 7-0 run over the final 1:45 to take a 24-17 lead into halftime. They then outscored the Kats 20-4 in the third quarter to push the lead to 44-21. The lead got as big as 60-28 with two minutes remaining.
“It’s a group that can put 10 points on you in a hurry. It’s an outstanding team, very well coached,” Snyder said. “I told everybody that’s been watching, they have everything you need. This is a team that can battle for a state championship, it really is.”
Iowa recuit and 2014 Miss Basketball candidate Whitney Jennings led Logan with 23 points on 9 of 19 shooting. She hit a pair of NBA-range 3-pointers. The first got her going after a cold start that gave Logan a 15-12 midway through the second quarter, and the second one made it 56-25 with 3:35 to go in the game.
Rachel Jennings added 16 points, and Nakeya Penny had eight points, 10 rebounds and three blocks.
The Berries (3-0, 1-0 NCC) entered having defeated their first three opponents — Lafayette Central Catholic, McCutcheon and Maconaquah — by an average margin of victory of 46.7 points.
But the Wildkats (1-1, 0-1 NCC) held them to four points in the first quarter on 1 of 10 shooting from the field to lead 7-4 after one. They had the game tied at 17-all with less than two minutes to go in the first half.
But the Kats shot just 29.3 percent from the field for the game including 3 of 16 from the 3-point line.
“I thought we ran our game plan, did a nice job. The end of the second quarter, they go on that run,” Snyder said. “Now we’re going into the halftime down, where we really controlled the first half. We had to change a couple things up, they took advantage of it.
“I thought our girls played hard, we cut down on our turnovers, we did a decent job on the boards. It’s a very good team.”
Jasmine Love had eight points and Brayana Fowler added seven to lead Kokomo.
Last season Kokomo was able to narrow the gap from a 17-point loss to Logan in the regular season to a 3-point loss in sectional play. The Wildkats have a 28-point margin to try to make up over the next three months.
“The second game of the season, we see where we’re at right now. There are some things we need to work on to get to this level,” Snyder said. “I’m proud of the girls’ effort, we just want to execute a little better, and I need to put us in better positions so I can get the ball inside a little bit more. That’s something that I’ll work on, and we’ll all get better after [Saturday].”
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IOWA RECRUIT: Logansport guard Whitney Jennings handles the ball under pressure from Kokomo players Jasmine Love, left, and Kendra Ryker during a North Central Conference girls basketball game Saturday night at Memorial Gym. Jennings had 23 points, five rebounds and four assists in Logan’s 62-34 win. KT photo | Tim Bath
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