AMHERST, NY- Even though the Kings of Bishop Kearney have opened this season with a 12-3 record against top quality competition from across New York State they weren't at full strength on the court until Tuesday.

Injuries had been the lone thing holding Kearney back this season, but now having their lineup complete it's the Kings looking to put Class AA in New York on notice.

Thursday saw Bishop Kearney go on the road to take on Amherst, and while it wasn't the greatest of all starts for the Kings they were able to take charge midway through the second quarter and roll from there as paced by the 18 points and 15 rebounds of Saniaa Wilson '21 it was Kearney rolling to a 64-43 victory.

Some may have looked at having to play shorthanded for the better part of the 2 months of the season as a detriment, but if you ask Kings head coach Kevan Sheppard he says it's actually a good thing that can benefit them as a group moving forward.

"It was a blessing in disguise I like to say because missing some players allowed us to fix our halfcourt sets and allowed us to play slower and learn how to do that instead of playing fast all the time," Sheppard explained.

That isn't to say he doesn't want to play fast as he hopes to push the pace and be one of the more up tempo teams from this point going with the return of guard Marianna Freeman '21, but having the ability to play at any speed and be able to thrive at it is an advantage Sheppard feels will benefit them moving forward.

Thursday's trip to Amherst was just the second game the team has played as a full unit and early on you could see they were still figuring out how to play together again.

A lot of the reasoning for Bishop Kearney's slow start was because of the sharpshooting of Tigers guard Ella Wanzer '21 as the Binghamton commit had 14 points in the first quarter as Amherst held a 17-15 lead.

Wanzer was getting shots all over the floor doing nearly whatever she wanted against the Kearney defense, something that Sheppard said he got on his girls about before the start of the second quarter.

"I just said she hasn't score on anybody that she's been getting the ball wide open and scoring wide open and that can't happen," Sheppard stated. "After that I think they realized they have to guard that girl."

Kearney did a great job of clamping down on Wanzer after that limiting her to just 3 points in the second quarter as Wilson started to impose her will down low against a smaller Amherst team as her play along with the shooting from the perimeter of Freeman and Kaia Goode '22 put the Kings on top, giving them a 34-25 halftime advantage.

That lead only continued to grow as Bishop Kearney continued to pound the paint with Wilson and Taylor Norris '21 combining to score 20 points in the second half as the dynamic frontcourt duo wore down Amherst and led by as many as 25 in the fourth before the Kings eventually cleared their bench with around 3 minutes remaining.

For as long as they could Amherst did what they could to hang around but the Tigers struggled to get offense from anyone outside of Wanzer who finished with a game high 22 points, and with Kearney getting a strong offensive output across the board it was the Kings who went to Western NY on Thursday night and went home with the 64-43 win.

Along with the 18 points of Wilson it was Bishop Kearney getting 13 points from Norris, 12 points from Goode, and 9 from Camille Wright '21 in what was a true all-around effort from the Kings.

That's exactly the kind of performance Sheppard says he wants to see more of moving forward as now playing at full strength he believes this is just the start of what should be a great close to the season for what looks to be a complete Kearney squad.

"Right now, we are still getting that chemistry where we want it but we are on a good track and hopefully we will keep improving and get better and better as we head into the close of the regular season," Sheppard said.