By Kyle Howard, Photos By Kurt Howard

The Foster Bulldogs visited the Kennedy Catholic Lancers Tuesday Dec. 13 for a battle over first place in the Seamount League. Both teams were tied for first with a 2-0 record in conference play. The Lancers came out of the gate strong and gained a 10 point lead by the end of the first half. Foster kept chipping away at the lead but Kennedy Catholic would respond with points of their own. The Lancers lead should have been a larger margin but poor free throw shooting throughout the game cost them a lot of potential points.

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In the third quarter things got a little bit sloppy for both teams with bad passing and shots. The Lancers turned the ball over seven times and the Bulldogs nine times in the quarter. Kennedy was still able to push their lead with great rebounding and getting second chance points in the paint while Foster had to settle for outside shots due to Kennedy’s big men playing good defense in the middle. Kennedy Catholic out scored Foster 42-25 in the second half with the final score 82-56. With the Lancers victory they now stand alone in first place.

Foster did have some success throughout the game shooting, knocking down several three pointers but didn’t prove to be enough against Kennedy’s controlled offensive execution. Senior Ablie Leigh led the Bulldogs with 13 points with Junior Adem Suta scoring 10. On the Lancer side senior Mitch Penner had a dominating performance with the game high 28 points. Mitch Penner remains the Seamount League’s high scorer, averaging 23 points per game. He was supported by Josh Seierhuis who scored 10 and Cole Madison and Anthony McCluskey who both scored 9.

Kennedy Catholic head coach Don Hoffman was pleased overall with his team’s performance and how they did well on offense saying one of the major keys to the victory was rebounding and second chance opportunities to score. “Anytime you get extra shots on the offensive end, its going to help your chances of winning the game, we talk a lot about rebounding being an important thing for us, we’ve got good size and when shots go up we have players who are hungry to get points off the glass.” Kennedy’s other major factor was their offensive execution. “When were patient we get layups, when we hurry we have problems.” Both teams will play Friday December 16th when Kennedy Catholic host’s the Renton Indians and Foster will be on the road against Evergreen.