By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor You couldn’t help but appreciate Kendall Kikkawa on Friday night. Even Poly parents were impressed with the courage the 5-foot-7 Flintridge Prep point guard showed down the stretch. Poly’s John Genske drove to the basket and put Poly up 43-41 with seven seconds to play with his off hand. Kikkawa, […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
You couldn’t help but appreciate Kendall Kikkawa on Friday night.
Even Poly parents were impressed with the courage the 5-foot-7 Flintridge Prep point guard showed down the stretch.
Poly’s John Genske drove to the basket and put Poly up 43-41 with seven seconds to play with his off hand.
Kikkawa, after a time out, drove the distance, got fouled and made his two free-throw attempts to send the game into overtime.
He would go on to score the next 8 Rebels’ points in overtime and led them to the victory, 51-45, in front of a standing-room-only crowd.
Kikkawa finished with a game-high 17 points, but he also had 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
“I was so proud of our team. We hung with them all game,” Kikkawa said. “We carried the feeling of last time (loss at Poly) we played them, and wouldn’t let ourselves lose again. My teammates have confidence in me to get our team the best shot possible. This win is extraordinary for us. It’s a huge momentum, knowing we’ve won 8 of our last 10.”
The win almost certainly guarantees Prep a second place finish in the Prep League
Ryan Bowen led Poly with 15 points, and Brendan Fong and Mateo Taylor had 10 each.
“We came here expecting to win and we played really hard, but we didn’t get the job done,” Bowen said. “It’s just one game, though. We’ll be back. They did a good job late and we didn’t. We tried to match (Kikkawa) when he kept scoring and maybe that made us lose focus a little.”
Jake Althouse pitched in with 13 points and 8 rebounds for the Rebels.
“Kendall’s been waiting for this moment for four years and he really carried us late,” Althouse said. “We couldn’t be more proud of him.”
Cameron Wu, Jonathan Le and Beau Detchemendy had 6 points apiece for Prep.
“It was senior night, and we got a tremendous defensive effort,” Prep coach Garrett Ohara said. “Jake carried us inside early in the first and Kendall carried us through in the second. These guys (both teams) are familiar with each other and John (Genske) was a focus for us defensively.”
John Genske, who is arguably Poly’s most versatile player was held to just 7 points, but the senior was all over the court and did so many things to impact the game for the Panthers, including his left-handed lay up to give Poly a 2-point lead with 7 second to play.
Prep has finished its regular season schedule and will wait and see where they finish in the Prep League.
Poly will travel to Firebaugh on Tuesday, and hosts Chadwick on Thursday in the final regular-season game.
With a pair of wins, the Panthers will win the Prep League outright.
In the first round of league, Poly defeated Firebaugh by 15 and Chadwick by 26.
Box Score:
Poly: 14-10-11-8-2-(45)
FP: 13-15-6-9-8-(51)
Prep League Standings:
Poly (15-4 overall, 5-1 in league)
Flintridge Prep (11-8, 6-2)
Chadwick (11-11, 4-2)
Firebaugh (2-20, 1-6)
Rio Hondo Prep (9-13, 1-6)
Related Post
