For a few years, Kelly’s goal was to get to the upper echelon of Public League girls basketball.
Under coach Hector Hernandez, the Trojans started at the bottom in the Green and worked their way up through the Blue and White to the Red.
The adjustment to higher-level competition was tough at times. In their first two seasons in the Red, Kelly won one total conference game. But realignment earned the Trojans a reprieve from relegation to the White, and by mid-January they already had a pair of conference wins to solidify their hold on a spot in the Red Star conference.
“It’s hard, but we try to stay up there,” senior guard Luz Escudero said after a 54-20 nonconference win over visiting Back of the Yards on Jan. 15. “It’s really difficult, but we try.”
It helps that the Trojans have a diversified offense that can score at all three levels. Junior center Amairany Rincon is a force in the post, while senior guard Sasha Arriaga-Morales takes advantage of her quickness to consistently score on drives to the basket.
And adding a productive third option is Escudero with her outside shooting.
Against Back of the Yards, Rincon scored a game-high 20 points for Kelly (9-7), Arriaga-Morales added 18 and Escudero finished with eight, including a pair of long 3-pointers after halftime.
Sophomore guard Mariah Valdez had a productive night for Back of the Yards (2-4), scoring 17.
Assistant coach Fabian Jaime, who was filling in for Hernandez, was glad to see Escudero let it fly, even from well outside the arc.
“I feel like as a coach, you just have to encourage them to take shots,” Jaime said. “Shooters shoot, you know? And she’s a shooter. … In practice, she shoots those shots. It’s a normal thing, honestly.
“For her, I feel like she’s more comfortable a little bit more behind the 3-point arc than (at) the actual 3-point arc.”
Escudero can be a tough critic of her shooting — “I could have done better,” she said after the Back of the Yards win.
But she also stays confident.
“My mentality is, if I’m scared (to shoot) I won’t get to where I want to get to,” she said. “And thank you to my coach for pushing me and telling me to keep going.”
Escudero appreciates the Trojans’ complementary style of play, though she notes there’s always room for improvement.
“As a team, we’re each good at different things,” she said. We work (well) together.”
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