It’s easy to forget how young the Union Local girls’ basketball team is.
Their fans, coaches and even players got a harsh reminder Saturday afternoon when the team struggled out of the gate against Morgan.
Shots weren’t falling. Offensive rebounds were non-existent. Turnovers? There were five in the first few minutes.
Is this the same team that steamrolled through the regular season at 22-1 and at times looked practically unstoppable?
The Jets were getting their first real taste of adversity in tournament basketball. Judging by the looks on some of their faces, they were teetering.Heads were down. Eyes were wide open. A look of disbelief came over the youthful Jets as if they couldn’t believe what was transpiring before them.
But it didn’t affect everyone.
The Eldest
It’s hard to consider a high school junior an elder statesman, but to a team comprised of freshman and sophomores, that’s exactly what Casey Kildow is.
The Jets’ junior point guard was able to keep her head while her teammates were shaking off the early ‘deer in the headlights’ look.
“She really does. She always keeps her head,” said head coach Rob Barr. “She’s our oldest girl, but she’s also our toughest girl we have.
“When we need someone to take it to the hole, it’s Casey.”
That’s just what the 5-foot-6 Kildow did.
While her teammates were misfiring, Kildow attacked the basket with fervor. She hit a couple quick shots to get her team back on track and dished off a couple assists to 6-1 freshman Reagan Vinskovich.
Vinksovich had nine at the break and Kildow added six, but those six were huge while she waited for her teammates to snap out of it offensively. And snap they did and for a while, the Jets got back to playing Union Local basketball.
Then the third quarter happened.
Young and Talented
Three straight turnovers and a 7-0 Raiders run had the home team down two and dangerously close to backsliding to first-quarter form.
But again, there was Kildow.
UL knotted the score at 25-all and then Kildow attacked the right side and lofted up a floater that hit true, putting her team back ahead. This time, it was to stay.
“We tell (Casey) that if you take it to the hole, somebody is going to have to help which will open up someone down low,” Barr said. “If not, get it up and on the glass. If it goes in, it’s two points. If it doesn’t, Reagan or Keira (Gregor) is probably going to get the rebound.”
Kildow hit only one more bucket the rest of the way to finish with 10 points, her season average, but she collected multiple assists feeding Vinskovich in the paint.
UL finally started to pull away for the eventual 18-point win in a game that was much closer than the final score indicated. Win and advance is the postseason mantra, no matter how it looks doing it.
The Jets are moving on, but if not for the heady play of their only junior early, they may well have spent Monday morning turning in their uniforms and wondering what could have been.
