Mills Makes Her Mark

By Dave Ricci

Kendall Mills can finally take a deep breath.

Kendall passed her sister, but more importantly, she helped her team win. Mills had 13 points as Kenmore East topped Williamsville East, 49-42, in a wild girls’ non-league basketball game that was played at Williamsville East, Wednesday night.

Mills, a senior, reached another milestone in her varsity career as she passed her older sister Kacie Mills for third place on the Lady Bulldogs all-time scoring chart.

Kendall, who now stands at 1,181 points entered the game needing just one point to tie Kacie, a Class of 2006 grad who amassed 1,169 points during her career. With 4:28 left to play in the first half Kendall Mills stepped to the free throw line and calmly sank both shots to arrive at the magic number of 1,170 points.

A proud moment, it was also a relief for Kendall who readily admits that she struggled in her last game against Lewiston-Porter last Friday because the reality of what was in sight weighed heavily on her thoughts.

“I don’t normally think about it when I’m playing. I try not to, but it just stuck in my head from last game. Shots weren’t falling and it was frustrating,” Mills said. “But I’m relieved and happy.”

Kendall accomplished the goal with sisters Kacie, Emily and their parents George and Betsy looking on. Kendall added that while people will be congratulate her for passing Kacie in her heart she knows that if it weren’t for her older sister’s influence and encouragement she likely never even would have touched a basketball in the first place.

“Definitely,” Kendall said with a smile. “She’s one of the reasons I’m as good as I am. I look up to her and I wouldn’t be able to do it without her.” It’s a good thing Mills was able to find her game because the Lady Bulldogs (14-2) needed everyone to bring their best effort to fend off the scrappy Lady Flames (4-11).

Thanks to a couple of 3-pointers from Maddy Miske the Flames were able to build a 16-6 lead after the first quarter as they flirted with the upset. It was during the break before the second quarters that Ken-East coach Jack Blanch told his girls that Will-East wasn’t going to just roll over and play dead. They were trying to help Will-East coach Chris Durr reach his 300th career win this season, so they were going to fight like dogs.

“Every team is going to work their hardest against us,” Ken-East junior Sarah Burhans said. “And (Blanch’s talk) definitely pushed us to make us want to work harder in the second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter.”

That proved to be the wake up call the the Lady Bulldogs needed as they spent the bulk of the second slowly chipping away at the Will-East lead. Trailing 25-24,in the third Serena Sordetto, who led all scorers with 18 points, drained a three to give Kenmore East a lead they would retain for the remainder of the game.

Burhans went 2-of-2 from the line to extend the lead 29-25. Burhans added another bucket late in the third on a layup off of one of her three steals. “I told the girls just play defense,” said Blanch. “Defense has been what’s gotten us back into all our games this year. They turned it up. Sarah Burhans had a couple steals in a row….they played a really nice game.”

Blanch, who coached all three Mills girls during their high school careers, said he couldn’t be happier for Kendall to hit this milestone. “I know that Kendall, more than anything else is glad that we came back and won,” Blanch said. “She’s such a team player and always has been.”

The Flames were led by Rachel Romanowski who had 12 points while Maddie Lawida had a trio of 3-pointers.

Just one senior, the Flames continue to be a work in progress and signs of that progress were visible as they battled to the end and did not suffer any long scoring droughts during the game