Staff photo / Dan Hiner Warren JFK’s Hannah Myers, center, fights her way to the basket during the first half of a game against Cleveland Central Catholic on Monday afternoon.

WARREN — Every basketball coach preaches defense to one degree or another. But the Warren JFK girls basketball team got a rare achievement on Monday afternoon.

The Eagles shut out Cleveland Central Catholic in the second quarter, propelling Kennedy to a 63-27 home win over the Ironmen.

Kennedy outscored the Ironmen 27-0 in the second frame. Didi Ryan was the major recipient of the team’s defense, as she scored 14 points in the second.

“Yeah, pitching a shutout, great defensively in a quarter,” Warren JFK coach Marc Morgan said.

The Ironmen scored the first points less than a minute into the game. But Kennedy responded with a 10-0 run.

CCC (3-7) got a couple shots to fall in the final four minutes of the first quarter, but the Eagles led 19-12.

That’s when Kennedy’s defense took over.

The Eagles (7-1) jumped passing lanes and pulled down rebounds to limit second-chance opportunities. All the while, they converted on the offensive end.

They took a 46-12 lead into the locker room and were knocking on the door of a running clock.

A steal and layup by Laney Condoleon triggered the running clock just under a minute and a half into the third.

Didi Ryan scored a game-high 26 points for the Eagles. Gianna Pompelia finished with 17 points, and Hannah Myers added 12.

Despite the success, Morgan wants to see improvement on the offensive side of the ball. He wants his team to play an up-tempo style, but with the running clock and the defense on Monday, his squad couldn’t play that way.

“I still think we need to share the ball a little better,” Morgan said. “I try to tell them this, I want them to share indiscriminately. I don’t want you to pick out people you pass the ball to – we work on that every day. If we can make the ball move like that, it makes it really difficult to guard us because we have five kids who can shoot it at any certain time. It makes it much harder to defend us. That’s where my growth mindset is, to get to that point.”

The Eagles have won five straight, and through their first eight games, have picked up some wins over larger programs like Aurora, Norton and Columbia. Their only loss is to Erie Cathedral Prep (Pa.).

JFK’s defense has led the way to start the season. They have allowed 44.8 points per game, and Monday was the fewest points allowed so far this year.

“I’m super proud of those first six, seven games because my expectation was we were playing some high-end teams, I don’t know if we could win that many games. We played pretty well, especially when your point guard’s coming back off of surgery and all those unknowns,” Morgan said.