WORTON — After being on the receiving end of back-to-back old-fashioned whippings, Kent County High School dished out some lickings of its own — and at an opportune time.
On the eve of the start of winter break, KCHS soundly defeated visiting St. Michaels, 63-22, in varsity girls basketball.
Freshman Aaliyah Waits in the paint scored on the Trojans’ opening possession to give them a lead that was never threatened in the Dec. 18 game between the Mid-Shore rivals.
Senior Jayla Sisco poured in 28 points to lead a balanced attack for Kent County, which improved to 2-2.
Waits and Talicia Wright each contributed 10 points, and Jane Cleary added eight.
Aryonna Wesley, Devynn Wiggins and E’niyah Wilson made up the balance.
Aleah George and Tess Weller put up 10 and eight points, respectively, for the winless Saints. George scored all eight of their fourth-quarter points and their only field goal of the first quarter.
After Waits and then Wright on a fast-break gave Kent County a 4-0 lead with 1 minute, 45 seconds elapsed, George scored her first bucket 20 seconds later to cut the Saints’ deficit in half.
The Trojans closed out the first frame on a 14-0 run, punctuated by Waits’ put-back of her own miss to beat the buzzer for an 18-2 advantage.
Kent County took its largest lead of the first half at 38-7 on a Wright free throw with 1:02 remaining to cap a run of 11 straight points that started with a Cleary jumper and included a nifty three-step layup by Wright.
Wright, the Trojans’ starting point guard, left the game at halftime because of another commitment. In addition to 10 points, she had seven steals in only 16 minutes of playing time.
In Wright’s absence, Sisco played both point guard and shooting guard after intermission. She scored 12 of the Trojans’ 14 third-quarter points to extend the 38-9 halftime spread to 52-14.
Sisco parlayed a steal at mid-court into another uncontested basket to start a quarter-ending run of 12 unanswered points.
The final 1:21 of the third quarter — and the remainder of the game — was played with a running clock when the margin reached 35 points. In this case, Sisco went the length of the court for a fast-break bucket after pulling down a defensive rebound to inflate the lead to 50-14.
She topped off the third-quarter scoring with a mid-range jumper with 6.6 seconds to go.
In addition to her season-high 28 points, Sisco totaled eight rebounds and eight steals.
KCHS dominated under the glass with the help of Cleary’s seven rebounds.
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Kent County resumes play tomorrow [Tuesday, Dec. 30] at a one-day holiday tournament at Snow Hill High School.
Snow Hill (1-2) will tip off against Crisfield (1-4) at 9 a.m., followed by Kent vs. Washington (1-3).
The losers of the first two games will play for third place.
The day will wrap up with a championship game featuring the winners.
Each game will start 20 minutes after the preceding game.
