The CESJDS girls middle school basketball team continued their undefeated season with a 21-11 win against the Kendall Demonstration Wildcats on Tuesday.

The Lions won the tip-off, and without wasting any time, seventh-grader Leah Kreisler gave the Lions the lead with a heads up play, catching the ball before it went out of bounds and putting it up for the first two points of the game.

Seventh-grader Gigi Gordon ended the first quarter stalemate with an amazing play. While falling out of bounds, Gordon passed the ball to seventh-grader Bianca Diamond who scored, giving the team momentum for the rest of the game.

The first quarter came to an end with the Lions leading 11-1 due to heavy defense by JDS. The Lions kept up their tight defense through the second quarter, leaving Kendall no room to breathe. Kendall could not make quick plays and had trouble getting baskets.

“Defensively we had a lot of steals … and our defense creates our offense, and I love seeing that…as long as we continue to put strong pressure on the other team and close out on all of our traps we are going to end up getting offense from that,” coach Brett Kugler said.

The Lions offense came alive in the second half and continued to dominate Kendall. JDS made great passes and got many rebounds that lead to baskets.

“On offense… we moved the ball around and we had six players score. That means we had good ball movement and everybody was playing unselfish basketball,” Kugler said.

The third quarter ended with an exciting blocked shot by the Lions to keep the score at 17-5. When the fourth quarter started, the Lions came out strong with two quick baskets and some fast breakaways.

“We were trapping pretty nicely….I think we played really well and we had a nice defense,” Diamond said.

Kendall broke the scoring drought during the fourth quarter with a two-pointer. The Lions wasted no time and on the next two offensive plays, they scored twice, making the score 21-9. Kendall threw the ball down the court and missed the basket. The buzzer sounded, ending the game in the Lions’ column, 21-11.

“We will continue working and building on in-game situations,” Kugler said. “Five and zero feels great but I also want them to understand that we have to take every game as if we are zero and zero. I want us to stay hungry.”