Coupeville’s Kailey Kellner, here with parents Tim and Jennifer, knocked down a pair of three-balls Sunday to help D’Youville College win a basketball thriller. (Photo courtesy Kellner family)
Things are on the upswing in New York.
Coupeville grad Kailey Kellner and the D’Youville College women’s basketball team are off to a 3-2 start on the season after pulling out a 69-66 thriller Sunday against Cazenovia College.
That’s a marked turnaround from a season ago, when the Spartans finished 5-20 and claimed only one non-conference victory.
Now, D’Youville has already tripled that number, giving them a boost heading into their first round of Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference games.
During Kellner’s freshman season, the Spartans finished ninth in the 10-team league. Right now, they boast the second-best record of any team from the conference.
D’Youville will get a big test this coming Wednesday, Nov. 28, when it hosts defending league champ Hilbert, which sits at 5-2 in non-conference play.
Winning tightly-contested games, like the Spartans did Sunday, bodes well for the future, though.
The two squads went toe-to-toe, shot-to-shot, swapping razor-thin leads at every break.
D’Youville was up by a single point, 17-16, at the end of the first quarter, while Cazenovia rebounded to claim a 35-34 advantage at the half.
The Spartans poured in 22 third-quarter points, their best showing of the game, to edge ahead 56-55 heading into the fourth, then clamped down on defense to close out the win.
Kellner was a big part of the win, coming off the bench to drop a season-high seven points in 16 minutes of action.
She knocked down a pair of long three-balls, slid a key free throw through the net at the end of the second quarter and also snagged two rebounds and made off with a steal.
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