Legend of scoring ace Kayleigh Heckel grows as she leads Lady Rams to tourney runner-up

The Port Chester basketball legend of Kayleigh Heckel keeps growing by leaps and bounds, dribbles, drives and long shots.

"Whatever it takes to win," she says. "It's a team game. And my teammates always seem to find me."

She is quite a find.

Every day in every way, the quiet, unassuming sophomore wunderkind called Special K just keeps getting better and better.

After one of her latest spectacular performances, this writer told her he was running out of superlatives to describe her sensational play and needed a bigger thesaurus to do her amazing performances justice. She smiled modestly. And then she went out and outdid herself in what seemed like a thousand different ways in an away tournament last weekend that she almost won singlehandedly. Almost being the key word here because the Lady Rams lost close in the finals despite her out-of-this-world performance when it came to show time.

Outstanding leading lady

How incredible was what Kayleigh did in the first Keith D. Yizer Memorial Tournament last Thursday through Saturday (12/16-18) in Mamaroneck?

Let us count the ways.

The pig-tailed superstar scored her 1,000th point off a foul shot in the first quarter of the opening game against Kennedy Catholic, 1,000 points being a milestone in most four-year varsity careers. Special K reached that total in just 33 games starting as an eighth grader who turned around a losing culture.

But memorable as that thousandth point was, it was just like an unforgettable warm-up for the heroics to come in the game's dying moments.

Heckel scored 20 of her season-high 53 points in the last quarter alone, none more dramatic than her sinking three consecutive pressure-packed free throws with 1.4 seconds left to play after being fouled to give the Lady Rams a 68-67 lead while taking a long three from the left wing.

For good measure, she blocked the Gaels’ final shot at the buzzer.

And that wasn't all.

The clutch stretch run

Because the Lady Rams trailed 48-38 going into the pivotal fourth quarter when Heckel sparked a 15-3 run that gave P.C. a 53-51 lead with 4:17 left to play, the lead coming after Special K hit a cutting Jenna Provenzano with a seeing-eye precision pass that led to an easy layup. After that the teams traded shot for shot with Provenzano hitting two clutch free throws with 55.8 seconds left to play. That set the stage for Heckel's closing heroics with Kayleigh scoring the Lady Rams’ last seven points.

It was Special K who came through in crunch time, trading basket for basket with the Gaels, cutting the deficit to 64-63 with 43.9 seconds to play. When the Gaels scored, Heckel soared to the rim and scored right back. P.C. had to foul to stop the clock in the closing seconds and the Gaels swished the free throws and were up 67-65 with 4.3 seconds remaining when Heckel launched a long three and was fouled in the act of shooting. That means she went to the line with three foul shots, the game on her fingertips. She hit all three. And that was that.

"We love Kayleigh," Provenzano said after the game. "She's an all-around athlete so we expect great things from her."

And that's exactly what the Lady Rams got because Special K wound up with a stat line that read 53 points (her season high), 11 rebounds, six steals and four blocks. And that's after running the team as their 5:7 point guard who is always looking to pass to an open teammate.

Memorable team effort

"What I'm going to remember about the game is that it was a team effort," the selfless Heckel said. "My teammates found me when I was open. It was close. It was fun. And it was really a good game to get because we pulled out a win."

Provenzano finished with seven points. Taylor Martin had 10 rebounds. The unheralded sub Yanairis Tejada hit two critical fourth quarter baskets in the paint. And the Lady Rams did it without their head coach Danny Davis being there because he was contact traced with COVID-19, home on quarantine, watching the game on live-streaming and calling in advice to assistant coach Jamie Florindi.

"It's great to have an athlete like Kayleigh out there who can take control of the game yet get the other girls involved because she knows the game so well and knows her teammates so well," Florindi said after the game. "There's a lot of camaraderie."

But the team missed Danny D and Heckel especially missed the coach she calls her "Uncle Danny" not being able to be there to see her score her thousandth point as well as see his team win. Especially since one of the team's best players, Madison (Madi) Ostrowski, power forward/center and the Section 1 Class AA leader in double doubles, was also among the missing, having injured her shoulder in the finals of Port Chester's first Louie Larizza Memorial Tournament won by the Lady Rams over Yonkers Montessori Academy with Heckel and Ostrowski both making the All-Tournament team and Special K being named the tourney's MVP. Ostrowski hopes to return to play after the Christmas holidays.

Missing difference maker

The finals of the Yizer Memorial Tournament could well have been different because the Lady Rams lost to host Mamaroneck 53-46, a game they had a shot at winning had Ostrowski been able to play because she is the team's leading rebounder and second high scorer. But it wasn't meant to be even though Special K kept the Lady Rams close after being held to 30 points, “held” being the operative word, while snaring eight rebounds, seven steals and four assists with Provenzano contributing 11 points and both making the All-Tournament team.

"The girls played very well in very physical games on both days of the tournament," Florindi said. "I give the Lady Rams credit for sticking to the game plan with the girls stepping up to fill in for each other when anyone got into foul trouble. Winning the first game of the tournament left us undefeated with a 6-0 record and losing the championship game close still left us finishing runner-up in the tournament. I'm very proud of this team. I can't remember the last time a Port Chester girls’ basketball team started off a season like this with the kind of record we have—we are ranked third in Class AA right now and ninth in Section 1. And I'm proud of everyone sticking together and playing well."

"We haven't won in a while so the last couple of years have been hard," said Provenzano. "Now we have a great group of girls. And we all love Kayleigh. So it's all pretty cool."

The cool Special K

Nobody is cooler than Special K who has started out the season's first seven games by scoring 33, 40, 38, 42, 29, 53 and 30 points respectively while racking up a quadruple double, three triple doubles and a double double in addition to being the only sophomore to be named to the elite pre-season Westchester-Lower Hudson Valley Super 7 team comprised of the area's best seven players. She has been named Westchester's Player of the Day twice so far this season and been nominated the area's Player of the Week in all three weeks of the season so far.

During the summer, she was invited to the John Lucas Top 160 Girls Elite Invitational Camp with only the best 160 girl basketball players in the country invited. Special K came away ranked as one of the standout players at that intensive pro-run camp while also being selected to the first team of the 16U All-Hoop Group Showcase League and was named as one of the best shooters of the summer in the New York/New Jersey Junior All-Star League. She also made the All-League and All-Section teams last season when she was one of leading scorers in Section 1 Class AA with a scoring average of 35 points per game, making her one of the top 40 scorers in the country. And is being recruited to play with various elite AAU travel teams.

Heckel already has college scholarship offers that began when she was an eighth grader. And she has thoroughbred athletic blood lines: Her grandfather and father played Major League pro baseball, her mother played softball for St. John's University and she and her brother Tyler, the Rams’ leading scorer, have both made All-Tournament teams and inherited their basketball-playing prowess from their maternal grandfather Rico Dos Anjos who was recently inducted into both the Stepinac and Westchester Community College's Basketball Hall of Fame.

It also helps that Special K hoists at least 10,000 practice shots per month to hone her shooting eye. And, who knows, that could lead to her scoring another 1,000 points before she winds down her playing career at Port Chester. And that almost certainly has never happened before.