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St. Edmund Prep defeats Bishop Kearney to win Brooklyn-Queens final

March 3, 2015 By Rob Abruzzese Brooklyn Daily Eagle
St. Edmund Prep won the Brooklyn-Queens GCHSAA championship for the first time since 2001-02 when it beat Bishop Kearney on Sunday. Eagle photos by Rob Abruzzese. More photos are available at www.BrooklynArchive.com.
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St. Edmund Prep beat Bishop Kearney 66-53 at Molloy High School in Queens on Sunday night, winning the Brooklyn-Queens Girls Catholic High School Athletic Association Division II championship. It’s the first time St. Edmund has won the title since the 2001-02 season.

“Before this year, we were not winning against them at all, so winning the first time we played them this year was huge,” senior Alexandra Jacques said. “We had the loss against them at home, but we won here when it mattered most.”

It was a close game with the two sides trading leads early. Bishop Kearney led 22-21 with about two minutes left in the first half when senior Jen Kaye went down with an ankle injury. She was clearly in pain when she hit the floor and was crying as she said, “I have to play.” But she did not return until nearly midway through the third.

“I saw it definitely as an opportunity to step it up because she’s not in the game,” said senior Kellie O’Neill. “She is one of their good players that they have; we just took advantage of her being out and played our game.”
O’Neill immediately took advantage as she nailed a three at the halftime buzzer to tie the game at 24-24. That was just the start of a 17-4 run that put St. Edmund ahead 43-30.

Kaye did eventually return, but only for a few possessions before she returned to the bench for good. Despite her absence, Kearney was able to stop St. Edmund’s third quarter dominance, but Jacques caught fire down the stretch, and Kearney was never able to get within 12 points of the lead.

Jacques finished with a game-high 29 points for St. Edmund. O’Neill had 15, Kelly O’Donnell had nine and Nina DiCioccio had eight. Kaye was leading the game with 12 when she got hurt and finished with that amount. Kailey O’Grady ended up leading Kearney with 21 points, and Emily Bosiacki had seven.

St. Edmund players explained after the game that the team came in highly motivated to win not only because it hadn’t won a Brooklyn-Queens championship since 2001-02, but also because it was against Kearney. Kearney was the only team to beat St. Edmund during the regular season as it defeated them on the final game of the year.

However, the girls are not satisfied with this win. They now turn their eyes toward the New York State GCHSAA tournament and feel motivated that they can take that too.

“It’s been a really long time since the girls’ program at our school has even gotten this far,” Jacques said. “With this win, we have a good mindset going into the next few games and I think we’re going to be able to win. I’m happy with this win, but to keep going would really make this season much better.”


More photos are available at www.BrooklynArchive.com.

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