SHARPSHOOTER: Hun School girls’ basketball player Kennedy Jardine heads upcourt in recent action. Last Saturday, sophomore guard Jardine scored 13 points, including four 3-pointers, in a losing cause as Hun fell 76-44 to Padua Academy (Del.). On Monday, Jardine scored 18 points to help Hun defeat Germantown Friends (Pa.) 49-35. The Raiders, now 3-4, were slated to play at George School (Pa.) on December 18 and then return to action by hosting the Blair Academy on January 9.  (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

When Kennedy Jardine drained a 3-pointer to pull the Hun School girls’ basketball team into a 30-30 tie with visiting Padua Academy (Del.) early in the third quarter last Saturday, it looked like the contest was going to be a nail-biter.

But Padua responded with a 15-2 run to break the game open on the way to a 76-44 victory.

While Hun head coach Bill Holup saw positives in the way his team competed, he sensed that his players could run out of gas.

“I liked the way we started but I was still worried about their numbers compared to ours; I figured that fatigue might tun into a factor and it did,” said Holup.

“It was 30-30 and we just got ripped apart after that. It was their overall depth and speed. As we were getting more tired, we were making more mistakes. It just added up.”

Senior guard and co-captain Jada Jones kept Hun in the game in the early going with 11 points in the second quarter, ending up with 22 points on the day.

“She was good. I am telling her not to rely on the outside shooting,” said Holup. “She should be able to attack the basket to make herself more of a threat.”

In terms of outside shooting, sophomore Kennedy Jardine has emerged as threat from the perimeter for the Raiders.

“When she is on, she is on,” said Holup of Jardine who hit 4 3-pointers against Padua on the way to 13 points.

“She has to mature as a basketball player. We have to come up with other ways to score and attacking the basket is the best thing because it is a higher percentage shot. She has the ability for that.”

Junior soccer star Nicole Angelini was in attack mode for Hun against Padua, making a number of drives to the hoop.

“Nicole has done a great job of attacking the basket but we want some other girls to jump in there and beat their girls off the dribble,” said Holup.

After jumping into the win column by beating Agnes Irwin (Pa.) 60-37 on December 8 and defeating Princeton Day School 60-22 on December 10, the Raiders stumbled a bit with a 49-48 loss to the Baldwin School (Pa.) last Wednesday and the setback against Padua.

“We played two great games, we played as a team, we were well balanced, and we were doing everything the way we practiced,” said Holup, who notched the 300th win of his coaching career with the victory over PDS.

“The past couple games got a little bit rough and I think it really comes down to if we are not making shots we might get a little frustrated at times and a little tired because we just don’t have the overall numbers and depth. But the girls play hard all the way through.”

With Hun finishing up the 2018 portion of its schedule by defeating Germantown Friends (Pa.) 49-35 last Monday to move to 3-4 before playing at George School (Pa.) the next day, Holup was looking for a hard effort from his players.

“We want to win them and end the 2018 year on a positive note, certainly being competitive and fighting through after having lost the last two games,” said Holup.

“It is important for us to turn it around again. The season has a lot of ups and downs. Earlier this week, we had two ups and now we have had two downs and we have to get back up again.”