HERSHEY, Pa. – The job is complete.
Also see: Backdoor Play Big Part of Golden Eagles title run • Championship a Family Thing for Golden Eagles • Fields, a Woman Among Girls
One year after falling in the PIAA Class 1A championship game, Kennedy Catholic captured its second state title in program history, beating Homer-Center 65-45 for the Class 2A crown.
“I’ve got the best girls in the classroom and on the court,” said Kennedy Catholic coach Justin Magestro. We use those cornerstones to make us a better team. They put so much time in during the season, in the offseason and it paid off.”
The win marked the second state championship in program history, with the last coming in 2001 against Nativity BVM, 48-46.
Kennedy Catholic (26-4) led by six, 26-20, at halftime, and like they have done during the entirety of their postseason run, played a great second half to pull away.
Layke Fields and Monique Vincent scored 15 of the Golden Eagles’ 18 points in the third quarter, as they extended the lead to 18, 44-26.
Kennedy shot 8-of-11 from the floor in the third, while limiting Homer-Center (24-8) to just 2-of-7 shooting on the decisive run. The Wildcats’ Macy Sardone, who scored 15 points in the first half, was limited to just two in the third quarter.
“We were able to get the ball out in transition, get some easy layups on secondary break, and executed on our sets extremely well,” Magestro said. “We’ve hung our hats on defense all year and we said in order for us to win this game, we have to defend. I knew when we went into halftime up by six that we had a really good chance of closing the deal.”
Fields, quite simply, was dominant.
The sophomore forward scored 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting and pulled down 11 rebounds. Over her final three games, Fields was 35-of-43 shooting.
“This is so rewarding,” Fields said. “Since the day we walked off this court last year, we said we were going to come back and win it this year and we did.”
See Fields’ full interview:
The lead never dipped below double-digits the rest of the game, despite the best efforts of Sardone, who poured in a game-high 27 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter.
“She’s a great player,” Magestro said of Sardone.”These girls understand that it was 32 minutes of business in Hershey town.”
Vincent scored all 13 of her points in the second half and played a great floor game, with seven assists to just one turnover while also notching three steals.
Magestro, meanwhile, just a freshman, played a critical role all season serving as the first player of the bench. She finished second on the team in scoring for the season and in the state title game with 15 points, nine of which came in the second half.
Kennedy Catholic’s Bella Magestro. Photo by Paul Burdick.
“This feels great,” Magestro said. “From the beginning of the season, the first day of practice, we had four goals, and this was our last one and we were able to reach it.”
See Magestro’s full interview:
Homer-Center actually took an early 7-4 lead on the strength of a pair of early 3s, but Magestro came off the bench and immediately hit a 3 and Fields had a putback to make it 9-7.
The lead extended to 16-11 as Hayden Keith hit a 3 to start the second quarter and grew to as many as eight, 23-15 after a pair of Izzy Bianco free throws.
“We’ve been here, we knew how it felt, and to be on the other side this year is the best feeling in the world,” Bianco said. “We play really hard competition and that helped prepare us for games like this.”
See Bianco’s full interview:
For the game, Kennedy Catholic shot 22-of-39 (56.4%) while limiting Homer-Center to just 14-of-39 (35.9%).
The Golden Eagles also held a 26-17 edge on the glass and a 9-3 edge in steals.
On the season, Kennedy won 24 of its 26 games by double digits, including every game in the postseason by at least 12 points.
“I love each and every one of these girls,” Fields said. “I would do anything for them. Our team chemistry just brought us together and got us this win.”
KENNEDY CATHOLIC 65, HOMER-CENTER 45
Score By Quarters
Kennedy Catholic 13 13 18 21 – 65
Homer-Center 11 9 6 19 – 45
Kennedy Catholic – 65
Monique Vincent 4 5-8 13, Isabella Bianco 1 6-6 8, Hayden Keith 1 1-2 4, Cassie Dancak 1 0-0 2, Layke Fields 10 3-4 23, Bella Magestro 5 4-9 15, Madison Peleger 0 0-0 0, Ka’mya Thompkins 0 0-0 0, Lochlyn Shimrack 0 0-0 0, Calrisse Connor 0 0-0 0, Totals 22 19-29 65
Homer Center – 45
Anna Cutshall 0 0-0 0, Alaina Fabin 2 2-5 6, Macy Sardone 8 6-6 27, Molly Kosmack 3 3-3 9, Ashlyn Kerr 0 0-2 0, Meegan Williams 1 0-0 3, Isabella Arone 0 0-0 0, Kylie Myer 0 0-0 0, Gigi Palmer 0 0-0 0, Totals 14 11-16 45
Three-pointers: Kennedy Catholic 2 (Keith, Magestro); Homer-Center 6 (Sardone 5, Williams).
