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Kennedy’s Seniors Step up to Wrap up Region 1 Title With Win Over Rival Farrell

Kennedy Catholic's Malik Lampkins-Rudolph goes in for a layup while being defended by Farrell's Khanye Matthews. Photo by Andy Close.

HERMITAGE, Pa. – With a chance to clinch the outright Region 1 title against rival Farrell on Tuesday, Kennedy Catholic’s leaders stepped up in a big way.

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Seniors Gio Magestro (27), Malik Lampkins-Rudolph (21), and Elijah Harden (18) combined for 65 points in an 84-69 win in front of a raucous home crowd.

“It was great,” Lampkins-Rudolph said afterward. “We had a lot of people here, everyone showed up for our senior night. Even though this isn’t our last game here it felt like it was nice to go out with an 84-69 win. All three seniors played great and the atmosphere was just great overall.”

See Lampkins-Rudolph’s full interview here:

                                      

The two teams traded body blows throughout as Kennedy went 20-of-30 from the foul line and Farrell 10-of-20.

In the end, it was a 12-1 run at the end of the first half that gave the Golden Eagles (16-4 overall, 14-0 Region1) the edge they needed.

Trailing 26-25 after a jumper from Farrell’s Omar Stewart, the Golden Eagles closed strong, as Lampkins-Rudolph had six points in the spurt, including a steal that led to a breakaway dunk.

Kennedy took a 37-27 lead at halftime and, as many times as Farrell (14-8, 13-3) came at them, they were able to keep the game at arm’s length throughout most of the second half.

                          

“It’s a rivalry game, it’s senior night and you know Farrell is coming in with a lot of energy,” said Kennedy Catholic coach Ken Madison, whose team swept the season series from the Steelers in the process. “It was a fun game to be a part of and I’m happy my boys stepped up to the challenge.”

The Golden Eagles extended the lead to 15 early in the third quarter after a Harden 3, but Farrell’s Lamont Samules countered with a triple of his own, as the lead fluctuated between 10-16 points for most of the quarter and the half.

Harden scored 10 of his 18 points in the third quarter and Wilson had a monster second-half to try and help will his team back in it, scoring 19 of his team-high 24 points over the final 16 minutes.

Every time Farrell cut the lead to 10, however, Kennedy responded, including a 10-0 run to start the fourth quarter, punctuated by old-school 3-point plays from Simeir Wade and Lampkins-Rudolph to extend the lead to 20, 67-47.

“That’s our seniors,” Madison said. “That’s getting us settled down, that’s getting us into an offense and getting us a decent look at a decent shot. I got to give it to Gio Magestro, Elijah Harden, and Malik Lampkins-Rudolph. Their seniors, they’ve led us and they played like seniors on senior night.”

Farrell came out strong, leading nearly the entire first quarter and holding a 21-16 advantage going to the second.

Magestro kept KC within striking distance with nine first-quarter points and canned an early second-quarter three as the momentum started to swing in the Golden Eagles’ favor.

Madison emphasized that the Golden Eagles are primarily a man defensive team, but they switched to some zone in the first half that proved to be effective.

“We’ve been working on our zone a little bit,” Madison said. “We’re usually a man team, but you know over this weekend we pulled out a little bit of zone. We said ‘hey, let’s give it a try.’ I thought Farrell did an excellent job coming right at us and we just wanted to change the pace and give them a different look. And luckily for us, it worked in our favor.”

Malachi Owens was also in double figures for Farrell with 16 points.Kenn

                                   

The regular season is now complete for the Steelers, while Kennedy has two games remaining – at Jamestown on Wednesday and home to Rocky Grove on Friday.

                       

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