Slumping Kennedy girls thumped by Trenton

With his team already in the locker room, John F. Kennedy girls’ basketball coach O’Neil Glenn slowly made his way through the bowels of the Sovereign Bank Arena, constantly staring at his scorers’ book.

There was no doubt several things that perplexed Glenn, not the least of which was the final score as Trenton Catholic (N.J.) crushed Kennedy, 52-38, in the Primetime Shootout Sunday night.

After a stunning 17-point loss to Truman on Wednesday, the team’s first to a Bronx foe in a decade, the Knights closed out the regular season with a 14-point loss to Trenton Catholic. It’s not exactly the way JFK wanted to be playing heading into the postseason.

“It’s on them,” Glenn said. “We missed 12 layups in the first half, 12 layups. Twelve layups? For a varsity team? C’mon. We came all the way out here for this? I could have stayed home with my kids.”

Led by Jacquel Sanders (11 points), Nakaida Monroe and Alvida Clemons (10 points apiece), Trenton Catholic (11-6) made short work of JFK, closing out the first half on a 16-3 run to take a commanding 26-9 lead into the locker room.

The Lady Knights (18-5) were held to a pair of Iraida Santiago free throws in the second quarter. The 5-foot-11 sophomore forward, back from a Glenn-issued one-game suspension, scored a team-high 14 points. Senior guard Robyn Jenkins added 10.

The effort in the second half was better for JFK, but the damage was already done. It’s that performance after halftime that the Knights hope carries over to the citywide playoffs.

“I was expecting us to come out hard since the loss to Truman,” Jenkins said. “At halftime we came out and played with more intensity, but that’s what we need the whole game. If we had that the whole game, we would have won this game.”

The warning signs are there for a talented JFK team and, according to Jenkins, it started well before these back-to-back embarrassing defeats.

Kennedy,Trenton