Unheralded shooter Jelani Sankey keys Kenwood’s win over Hyde Park

Kenwood’s roster is stacked with Division I caliber players and flashy guards. So almost no one notices when senior guard Jelani Sankey checks in to the game.

Then the shots start falling. Sankey is one of the city’s premier 3-point threats.

“I’m pretty confident with my shot,” Sankey said. “And yeah, it helps coming in off the bench. Teams don’t always pay a lot of attention to me.”

That will eventually change. Sankey scored 14 for the Broncos in a 61-40 win over Hyde Park Sunday in the Chi-Town Conference Showdown at Young.

With highly regarded players like Zion Morgan (15 points), Manny Patterson (12 points, six rebounds) and Nick Robinson (three points, eight rebounds) on the Kenwood (6-1) roster, Sankey is finding himself open more than ever this season. He shot 3-for-4 from 3-point range in the game.

“He’s the ultimate sixth man,” Morgan said. “It’s huge to have someone come in that can shoot like that.”

Hyde Park (3-4) turned the ball over 21 times, far too much to be able to mount any sort of credible threat against the talented Broncos.

“It was our pressure defense,” Morgan said. “We are priding ourselves on that this year.”

Martin Oliver led Hyde Park with 17 points and Antoine Pike added seven points and six rebounds.