Laureano named Coach of the Year
Fifth-seed Kendall held visiting Alexander off the scoreboard for the first four minutes of the first quarter and the first 5:30 of the second to jump out to a 31-13 halftime lead on their way to a 54-37 Class C2 Section V boys basketball playoff victory.
The Eagles scored the first ten points of the contest with senior William Condo netting a three-pointer and a pair of free throws, senior Mookie Nauden hitting a free throw and a field goal and Colton Breslawski hitting a jumper from the baseline.
They built that lead to 18 points in the second quarter after scoring the first 12 points of the period with contributions from five different players.
Their two-three defense held the Trojans to just five more points in the third and led 42-18 with Condo adding seven points to his total.
A late third quarter/early fourth quarter 14-2 run by Alexander cut the Kendall lead to 13, but that was as close as they would get.
“We played them early in the year and used a man defense and lost in overtime,” Kendall head coach Justin Laureano said. “The second time we started in a three-two since they have so many outside shooters, but we were down at halftime. We switched to a two-three from that point on against them and haven’t looked back.”
Condo led the Eagles with 16 points and added five assists and four rebounds. Nauden had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. He added three steals and three assists. Junior Evan Gaesser had ten points; Ramsdell led with ten bounds plus five blocks and seven points.
The Eagles traveled to fourth-seed Dundee in the quarterfinals.
Laureano, in his sixth year as Eagles head coach, was named Genesee Region Coach of the Year for the first time after leading Kendall to a 14-5 record.
‘We’ve been building for several years and have become a solid team,” Laureano said. “We lost our interior big guys after last year, but the young guys like Jacob Ramsdell and Breslawski and Nick Manners have put in a lot of work and improved steadily all year.”
