KUA vs Holderness

1/25 On Wednesday, the day after their game against Lebanon, the KUA jv boys basketball welcomed Lakes Region rival Holderness School for what turned out to be an epic battle. Like in the game on Tuesday, the Wildcats jumped out to a quick lead, only to let Holderness back in the game as halftime approached. The score at halftime was KUA 33 Holderness 22. KUA had a good strategy in place for the second half, but Holderness, led by its freshman point guard, just kept chipping away at the KUA lead. With minutes to go, Holderness had the lead, and it took some strong moves to the hoop by Matt Cricco in the last minute to build the KUA lead back to 1 point. A KUA foul with 6 seconds left gave Holderness a chance for two free throws, and perhaps the win. Holderness missed the first shot, but made the second, tying the game at 63-63. KUA tried for the go ahead bucket, but came up short. During the 4 minute overtime period, Holderness jumped out to a four point lead, only to have their star point guard (who had 21 points in the second half alone!) foul out with about three minutes left. Karma struck less than a minute later, when KUA point guard and co-captain Bryan Gee went down with a twisted ankle. The two teams, without their floor generals, slugged it out during the last minutes of the game. KUA's trapping press proved to be too much for the Holderness team that had lost its leader, and KUA pulled ahead to win 76-68. Four KUA players led the scoring for the Wildcats: Peter Logan (23), Bryan Gee (15), Matt Cricco (15) and Andy Wheating (15). The Holderness point guard led all scorers with 29. In an unusual but understandable move, the Meriden sports writers gave the player of the game award to the Holderness point guard, whose name never made it to the score book.