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Plenty of upside to this Hersey ‘W’

This Hersey girls basketball win, 52-38 over Prospect, was for Patti Kennedy.

As she stood at half court before the game, Kennedy was remembered for her 19 seasons as Hersey’s girls athletic director.

After assistant principal of student activities John Novak and Hersey girls basketball coach Mary Fendley spoke, the retiring Kennedy took the microphone on Friday night in the Hersey Carter Gymnasium.

She said how much she enjoyed dealing with all the ups and downs in the business.

“But mostly ups,” she said.

Then she looked toward the Hersey players.

“And right there,” she said, pointing their way, “are the ups.”

Those Huskies (13-9, 5-3) then got up 8-0 on the visitors and never trailed.

Hersey players wore orange T-shirts that read ‘Kennedy Basketball’ on the front.

“We played the game for the person on the front of our T-shirt,” said Hersey senior guard Casey Weyhrich. “She does so much that goes unnoticed so we wanted to make sure we noticed her. We are going to miss her so much.”

If you walked into the game three minutes late, you missed the 8-0 run by Hersey, with all the points coming from junior guard Morgan Harris (on a rebound layup and back-to-back 3-pointers).

Prospect (11-12, 2-6) battled back to within 11-10 but Hersey closed the first half with a 10-2 run to lead 28-17.

Senior Michele Molini’s 3-pointer got the Knights to within 36-32 with 6:15 left in the game but the Huskies finished strong, getting 8 points in the final 5:15 tifrom junior Renee Poulos (14 points, 8 rebounds).

Harris led the Huskies with a game-high 18 points while Erica Hill chipped in 8. Meg Cerniglia pulled down a team-high 12 rebounds.

“It got a little closer at the end but we were able to pull it out,” said Weyhrich, who handed out 6 assist with 5 points.

Molini led Prospect with 14 points, followed Catherine Sherwood (10) and Trisha Benson (8).

“We’ve got to come out to win these games, not just hang around and hope to win,” said Knights coach Ashley Graham, who said senior guard Adriane Falagario will be out for the season with a knee injury. “We have to expect to win.”

“We can’t let doubt creep in when we are heading into the state playoffs. We are not going to beat teams rebounding and turning the ball over like we did.”

Kennedy sat with close friends and family, including her husband Bob and stepdaughter Caitlin. Many current and past Hersey coaches were in attendance, including former athletic director Ken Carter for whom the gym is named.

Fendley remembered being the visiting team when Prospect hosted ‘Jean Walker Night’ for it retiring Hall of Fame girls athletic director and girls basketball coach.

“That was a very cool experience that night so for our girls tonight and hopefully the Prospect girls, too, they were able to see how much of an impact Patti had for girls sports in the whole area.”

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