Girls pg 11 3-7-19
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The season came to an end Feb. 26 for the Woodstock Academy girls’ basketball team.
The Centaurs finished their season with a 10-12 record after a loss to East Hartford in a first-round Class LL state tournament game.
“I don’t think many people thought we would even make the playoffs so to break even for the regular season, I definitely would call it an overachievement,” said Woodstock Academy coach Will Fleeton. “It’s a little different view for me because I work with these kids every day so I felt like we could get even more. I see the desire and passion they have. Five-hundred is great. I think we could have done a little better.”
There is some good news for the Centaurs.
They lose only three seniors; leading scorer and rebounder Heather Converse (12.2 points per game, 11 rebounds a game), guard Aislin Tracey (5.2 points per game, 6 3-pointers, 37 steals, 29 assists) and Mackenzie Eaton who was injured for almost the entire season, playing in just one game.
It means Fleeton has a core to work with next season.
“I love the kids. They put in an honest day’s work every day. We see some gradual improvement as we go and that’s all I’m after. If they’re going to work hard and show improvement, then we’re headed in the right direction,” Fleeton said.
Without Converse, the offense will now be in the hands of Katie Papp who finished second in both scoring and rebounding (7.8 points, 6 rebounds per game) and Kayla Gaudreau (6.8 points per game).
“Scoring was an issue for us all season even when we were fully healthy. Missing a key big girl (Converse) in the middle will be a factor. She does a lot of things that don’t show up on a stat sheet. To fill those shoes, we will probably have to do it as a group, but I’m confident in the returning kids that they will put their best effort forward,” Fleeton said.
One thing he hopes is that his players will pick up the basketball in the offseason.
“That definitely has to happen to play at this high a level,” the Woodstock Academy coach said. “I don’t have many full-fledged basketball players, I have multi-sport athletes. I’m proud of them for that. I would rather see that than see them carry a basketball 24/7. But I think extra time with the ball in their hands can only help. It’s definitely a benefit. Is there time and space for that? I don’t know.”
The injuries mounted up for the Centaurs as the season neared its end.
“It seemed like every game we would lose (a player) as we approached the last one. I think I will always carry the question with me forever; If we were fully loaded, how would we have performed against East Hartford?” Fleeton said.
The 25th-seeded Centaurs were playing shorthanded against the No. 8 Hornets Feb. 26 and it showed.
They fell to East Hartford, 61-31.
Converse was sidelined for the last three games of the season with a concussion. Also missing was Papp and two younger players, Peyton Saracina and Sierra Bedard.
East Hartford didn’t come into the game with a 16-4 record for nothing as the Hornets were “pretty solid” according to Fleeton.
East Hartford had some good size and without their two largest bodies in there, the Centaurs yielded a host of offensive rebounds.
The Hornets scored the first eight points of the game and led after the first quarter, 13-2. East Hartford essentially wrapped up the game when it outscored the Centaurs again in the second quarter, 23-12, to take a 36-14 lead into the halftime locker room.
“I thought we defended them well, they just got extra chances. They won the rebounding battle, had many offensive rebounds, which hurt us. It’s tough to make a couple of good stops, give them the ball back and have to do it again. The lack of size hurt us. We fought in the paint as best we could, I can’t complain, we just couldn’t hold down their bigs,” Fleeton said.
Gaudreau had four 3-pointers and led the Centaurs with 12 points while Alexa Pechie added eight in the loss.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
Woodstock Academy
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