By Michael Wojtychiw

The Kenwood and Phillips girls sophomore squads are developing quite the rivalry.

After Phillips made a comeback to win in last year’s girls sophomore city championship game, the two squads were back at it on the same stage a year later, with the Broncos looking for revenge against their conference foe.

When the two teams met on Jan. 17, the Wildcats walked away with a 13-point win and actually came into the championship game Saturday, Feb. 10, at UIC’s Credit Union 1 Arena on a 20-game winning streak, its only loss coming in the first game of the season against Loyola.

Last year’s title game between the two programs came down to the end, with the wildcats coming from behind to take down the Broncos.

Saturday’s game followed suit as Kenwood got out to an early lead, but Phillips would battle back to win its second straight sophomore title, defeating Kenwood 39-36.

“This feels great, going back-to-back,” Phillips coach Fred Baker said. “This is a different group, we only had two returners, Antonette Jones and Anijah Robinson and the freshmen came in and after our first day of tryouts I told them ‘Listen, if you don’t plan on playing on the last day of the season, this isn’t the right program for you or the right team because we have a goal.’

“The girls fought hard. Last year we went 24-4, these girls went 21-1, only loss opening night. That Kenwood team made this game real tough.”

Phillips started off timid and cold from the field, hitting only 3-of-22 in the first period, but was able to turn Kenwood over seven times, allowing the game to stay dead even at eight after the game’s first seven minutes.

The Broncos, however, were able to take control – for the time being at least – in the second quarter, when they outscored the Wildcats 13-6 thanks to 50% shooting in the quarter.

“Usually it’s the first quarter with us, where we’ll start off bad before we realize it’s time to play for real,” Antonette Jones said. “When we went into halftime, we went in and talked and realized that nobody wants to lose.”

“I don’t like starting off slow, but it seems like what we do,” Baker said. “The emotions get high, sometimes we play Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde.”

The third quarter saw Phillips slowly battle back, taking the lead with just under a minute-and-a-half elapsed in the quarter. But Kenwood would go on a 15=4 run over the last three-and-a-half minutes of the quarter to not only regain the lead, but also take a six-point lead, 36-30, going into the fourth quarter.

That’s when the Wildcats’ defense truly stiffened though.

Down 36-33 two minutes into the period, the Wildcats turned the Broncos over on steals on seven consecutive possessions, taking the lead on a basket by Lillee Ingram to make it 37-36 with 1:47 remaining.

“When we’re on the court, we talk to each other and when we communicate with each other, we play better,” Akyla Williams said. “After one of the timeouts in the fourth quarter, we knew that we couldn’t be ball-watching and had to go out there and get it done.”

Antonette Jones and Akyla Williams led the way for Phillips with 10 points apiece, while Danielle Waddy and Makayla Triplett led Kenwood with nine points each. Triplett also had 14 rebounds.

Photos by Brandon Parker/OSA