By STEVE BRICKLER
IRONDEQUOIT, N.Y. — Irondequoit got 11 points from sophomore Chase Leonardo and 10 points from senior Quinn VanKerkhove to earn the first win of the season with a 44-30 victory over Monroe County Division II rival Spencerport, Wednesday night.
“The kids played a complete game,” said first-year Irondequoit head coach Kyle Trevas. “They did everything we asked them to do. Probably the best team to follow a scouting report that I ever coached. We’ve really dedicated ourselves to being tougher and being mindful of where we’re supposed to be.”
Spencerport got off to an early 6-4 lead but the Eagles countered with an 8-0 run that gave them a lead that they did not relinquish and methodically extended the lead over the final three quarters.
Leonardo was instrumental in unlocking the Ranger defense by hitting three triples on the night while VanKerkhove was able to earn his points by driving to the hoop and finishing underneath.
“I was able to get more opportunities, the team put their trust in me,” said Leonardo.
Irondequoit finished the first quarter with a 12-8 lead, but the Rangers pulled within one midway through the second at 14-13 behind back-to-back buckets by Kyle Milburn who scored a team-high 11 points for Spencerport.
The Eagles countered with an 11-0 run that spanned the end of the first half and into the beginning of the third quarter. Senior Isaiah Ballard scored four of his six points on the game during this run. Leonardo added one of his threes and VanKerkhove and Goti Bandas each contributed two-point field goals. The Rangers would get within seven points, but junior DJ Kemp hit the first of his two triples on the game to get the Eagles back to a double-digit lead in the third quarter. The Eagles pulled away for the final margin from there.
Trevas was quick to praise the work his team did on the defensive end in holding the Rangers to 30 points.
“Obviously it starts with Quinn on the defensive end but other guys stepped up especially off the bench. Jayden Patterson comes in and gets a deflection off the kid’s leg out of bounds, Myles (Wynn) gets a big steal, Nikki (Yudin) doesn’t get enough credit for the blood, sweat and tears he puts out there. He could go out and score a bunch of points but he exhausts everything on defense and that’s what we need from him and then we had other guys step up.
“Josh Morse coming in and playing good defense when Isaiah comes out of the game and Chase coming up big. He’s a scary dude, he really can shoot. The young guys played really well.”
“It was great to get our first win. We had two very tough losses against two very good teams (Penfield and Schroeder),” said VanKerkhove. “We had to come in here and take care of it because we know we’re a good team. We had to play better, which I think we did. We’ve got to keep building on this.”
Spencerport fell to 2-3 on the season. Aside from Milburn’s 11 points, the Rangers got six each from Hunter Streb and Miron Gurman, three apiece from Zach Lamberton and Tony Kanaley and one point from Eric Schuyler.
For the Eagles (1-2) Kemp and Bandas each finished with six points, Patterson and Devin Panzardi added two points apiece and Yudin contributed one point to supplement the scoring of Leonardo, VanKerkhove and Ballard.
The win was the first for Trevas as head coach of the Irondequoit varsity team. Trevas had previously been the head coach at Spencerport and of the Irondequoit JV program.
Leave a Reply