KIPP-Lynn girls hoop team repeats as MCSAO champion

In a rematch of last year’s final, the KIPP Academy-Lynn Collegiate (KALC) girls basketball team defeated the Academy of the Pacific Rim (Hyde Park) 54-46 at UMass-Boston Sunday for the MCSAO tournament championship.”We won last year with all freshmen,” Panthers coach Nat Jones said. “This year, everyone came back and did it again.”KALC took a 30-15 halftime lead before APR used a 12-2 second-half run to tighten the score.”My girls were pretty tired,” Jones said. “We have a 7-person rotation and it was a really, really big court.”Yet the Panthers prevailed, led in part by Pleilerkay Gaye, who scored 16 points despite taking an elbow to the head. She was evaluated by a trainer and returned to play.Meanwhile, Alex Huffman contributed a triple-double (22 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists). She also had seven steals and only two turnovers. Additionally, she had some “big free throws down the stretch,” Jones said, calling her “definitely my star player.”The coach also praised power forward Helen Maldonado for her rebounding and setting screens, as well as her resilience (“She and Alex were on the court the whole time in the final,” he said); center Marie Kamba, who scored six points (“Helen and Marie always play the two biggest girls on the other team,” Jones said); Serena High (8 points, all in the first half); and Anaidys Uribe (2 points, “great minutes and great defense,” Jones said).The Panthers close the year with a perfect 21-0 record.KALC 67, Pioneer 41At UMass-Boston, KALC defeated Pioneer Charter School of Science Saturday morning.Huffman and Gaye combined for 25 points in the first half. Gaye ended the game with a career-high 25 points, and added 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals. Huffman scored 17 points, adding 10 assists and 7 steals. Huffman also knocked down all 9 free throws she attempted.High scored 13 for KALC, including three 3-pointers. Maldonado, Kamba, and Uribe all helped out.Rich Tenorio can be reached at [email protected].