Emily Clemens, Riley Currier and Kings Park cruise to victory over Glenn

Emily Clemens, one of the Kings Park senior captains, wasn’t happy with the way her team started its previous game and the result that followed. Kings Park was determined not to suffer the same outcome back-to-back, and it quickly became apparent that Friday would be different.

Kings Park scored the game’s first 15 points in the first six minutes en route to a 66-29 victory over host Glenn in Suffolk League VI girls basketball on Friday. Kings Park led 18-4 after the first quarter and rolled to a 39-12 halftime advantage.

“We wanted to come out fast,” Clemens said. “I think that was one of the big things about last game. We didn’t come off the bus. We didn’t come out with that intensity we usually play with, so that was our big focus coming into today, and that’s what we did.”

Clemens scored all eight of her points during the 15-0 opening run. Kings Park (14-4, 11-3) had 10 different girls score on Friday after a 56-51 loss to Islip on Tuesday.

“Coming off that loss, people were disappointed, and coming out like that really brings up the energy,” Clemens said. “It brought fire to our game.”

Riley Currier contributed 16 points, six rebounds and six blocks, Maddie DiRusso had 10 points and three assists and Clemens added six rebounds.

“We wanted to really speed it up, and it really worked,” coach Tom Edmundson said. “The 66 points is the most we’ve scored all year, and it was good to see everyone contribute.”

Riley Szokoli had 20 points for Glenn (6-11, 4-9), which had only six healthy players because of injuries.

Undefeated team honored

Glenn did have reason to rejoice, though, as the school celebrated the 20th anniversary of the 2004-05 team going 29-0 en route to winning the Suffolk overall, state and Federation titles. Glenn had nine of its 13 players and coach Andrew Athanas in attendance at Friday’s celebration.

“There’s a lot of nostalgia,” said Shannon Lorenzen, who played as Shannon Colligan in high school and organized the celebration. “I’ve known these girls since I was 5 years old and we were able to do something incredible and it all meant so much to us. It’s really nice that most of us are able to come back home.”

The gym had photos and newspaper clippings from their championship run. Glenn beat Nichols, 40-36, in the Federation Class B final after defeating Waterloo, 57-45, in the state public school final.

“It’s just really special,” Lorenzen said. “It was one of the greatest years of our lives and we can’t believe it was 20 years ago. It feels like it was almost yesterday. We’re all like, ‘How has it been 20 years?’