PSA’s Cedano –
support from
every direction
KC Cedano started and finished last Friday’s PSA girls’ Prep basketball game at Tilton the same way – providing a big lift for her teammates. But she did it from very different places.
She got a steal and layup on the first possession of the game, then came down and drilled a 3-pointer on the next one, getting PSA off to a quick start it needed.
She scored 10 more points over the course of the game, giving her 15 total, but she found herself on the bench for the final three or four minutes as coach Devin Hill liked the feel of the five who were on the floor. No matter for Cedano, who was the loudest cheerleader on the sideline as the Mustangs avoided a three-game losing streak by outplaying Tilton in a 69-62 win.
“It bothered me a tiny bit at first, if I’m being honest, but that’s just the competitive side of me,” said Cedano, one of the Mustangs best players and finishers. “But I trust my teammates and I knew they could finish it. At that point, my job was to keep the energy up on the sideline and make sure everybody was cheering and being supportive.
“As you get older, not only do you have to be good on the court, but you have to be good off it. You have to get more mature. You have to listen to the coach, trust the coach, trust your teammates, and not be selfish. We wouldn’t gain anything from me sitting on the bench pouting or being mad.
”We had been in a bit of a slump for a week or so with two losses, so we needed this win to get our confidence back up. Games are going to get more and more intense as we get into the last month of the schedule, and we needed to get going back in the right direction. I’m just glad we won. Nothing else matters.”
PSA led 20-12 at the end of the first quarter, then 37-28 at the half. It was 60-56 with two-and-a-half minutes to play when the Mustangs regrouped during a timeout, with plenty of positive “We can do this” in the huddle. And they did, overcoming a questionable call that went against them in the final minute, and Ines Goryanova and Genevive Wedemeyer both went two-for-two from the free throw line to seal the win.
Goryanova finished with 22 points, five steals, and four assists, while Wedemeyer had 10 points and played baseline-to-baseline lockdown defense on Tilton’s talented point guard.
Wednesday, PSA got caught looking ahead to the Tilton matchup and dropped a 61-54 decision to a game Busche Academy. Janeya Grant had 24 points and Astou Ndeye finished with nine points and seven rebounds in that one.
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy

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