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- Category: Past Issues
Girls' roundup
PHS wins
by 1 point
PUTNAM --- Jan. 6, in a tough see-saw game the Putnam High School girls' basketball team pulled out a win over Hale-Ray by one point, 39 to 38.
In an exciting game that saw the lead change three times, Putnam pulled out a win over the Little Noises of Hale-Ray from the Shoreline Conference. Putnam had an early 10-point lead , then trailed at half 29-22, and then only went ahead late in the fourth quarter 39-38.
Putnam's record stands at 7-0 and Hale-Ray's record is 4-5.
Top Putnam scorers were Erin Konicki with 12; Christie Austin with 10; and Monica Phongsa with nine.
Pomfret School
Varsity Basketball
Pomfret 39 Taft 45
Jan. 5: Unfortunately the break got the best of the girls as legs showed fatigue and plays weren’t well executed against undefeated, Class A Taft School. The first half was a slow start and the opponent jumped out to a 5-0 lead. Taft’s players were tall and strong, and we weren’t going to be able to out-muscle or out-jump them. The game plan was to step up the defensive intensity, get a body on the box-out after every shot, and run, run, run....and it worked. Pomfret’s defensive intensity was awesome, holding the opponent scoreless for a stretch and running the fast break at every opportunity; the girls took a 7 point lead with a few minutes to go before the half. Unfortunately this effort couldn’t last - partly because the legs aren’t there yet, partly because we couldn’t sustain the intensity - and Taft made a strong comeback at the end of the half to take a 1 point lead.
At the start of the second the fitness level was apparent, and Taft worked to build a seven-point lead. The Taft players deserve a lot of credit as they played incredibly tight defense, not allowing Pomfret girls any outside looks and making it difficult to run set offenses. The strategy continued to be fast break - get into the paint, draw the defense and dish to the open man - but we weren’t looking very fast. With a timeout at the ten minute mark, the coaches challenged the girls to dig deep in these remaining minutes, and they responded. Slowly but surely the girls chipped away at the lead by stepping up defensive pressure, forcing bad shots and running once again on the break. But there continued to be lapses, namely on Pomfret’s defensive transition, and Taft’s Captain started to warm-up from the 3-point line (she would hit 3 in the second half).
A timeout with just a little over 6 minutes remaining brought again the message of digging deep, of being mentally tough and pushing beyond adversity, and this time the girls took the court with true determination. A diagrammed play put the ball in the hands of Captain Jamie Samociuk who laid it in from the block. Co-Captain Z Hutchins followed suit, hitting a jumper from just outside the paint as did junior Meg Gaudreau. On the defensive end, a steal from Samociuk (1 of 4 on the day) led to a fast break with junior Whitney Willingham on the receiving end of the the bounce pass from Samociuk for the basket and the trip to the foul line. Another defensive stop - a charge taken by sophomore Alyson Chase - led to the opportunity for Pomfret to tie or take the lead. Hutchins found herself in the paint with the ball and took the jumper - though it didn’t fall, Hutchins was at the line shooting two. Both shots rimmed out, but Gaudreau grabbed the offensive rebound on the second, dished it out to Chase who put up the 3 for the lead. Once again, the shot rimmed out (not a good shooting day for the Griffins finishing at about 27%) but this time Samociuk, all 5’3" crashing the paint, grabbed the rebound for the putback. On the next possession Taft hit an outside shot to build the lead to 3, but Gaudreau responded by driving the paint all the way for what we thought was the ‘and 1’, but the ref called the foul before the shot and Meg stepped to the foul line for two. Draining both, Pomfret was down 1 with just over a minute remaining.
Unfortunately, the final minute and a half of play does not represent the hard work that got the girls to that moment. Taft had two offensive possessions, and they scored on both. One was a 3, the other other a baseline jumper. The girls found themselves down 6 with less than 20 seconds remaining and finished the game unable to score.
Jamie Samociuk: 7 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals; Alyson Chase: 3 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 charge taken; Meg Gaudreau: 11 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists; Whitney Willingham: 7 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 block; Anyolina Montilla: 7 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists;
Z Hutchins: 4 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block.
Pomfret 46 Porter 48
Jan. 8: It was a disappointing day for the girl’s varsity basketball team as they fell by two points to an aggressive Miss Porter’s squad, a team they had beaten just three weeks earlier in the season. In the first half the girls were able to get some open outside looks against Porter’s 3-2 zone, and Jamie Samociuk, Meg Gaudreau and Alyson Chase were all able to connect from behind the 3-point line. More difficulty came finishing shots from the paint, and with the exception of two baskets from Whitney WIllingham, the girls struggled to get offensive rebounds (6 in the first half) and to finish when they did. They resorted, instead, to more outside shots, and this is the first game all season where the team did not take a single foul shot until well into the second half. Defensively, there was some excellent individual play, but team defense came in spurts. Samociuk was all over Porter’s point guard, making it virtually impossible for her to get any open looks, and Anyolina Montilla kept Porter’s most aggressive player, #20, to only 2 points.
In the second half there was a lot less fuel in the tank, which contributed to poor shooting, poor defensive transition and help rotation, and inconsistent boxing out effort. Miss Porter’s would go on to score 29 second half points - and #20 hit 14 of them. When Pomfret decided to fast break and penetrate the paint, good things happened, but these moments were few and far between. Instead the girls relied on outside shooting on a day Pomfret were only shooting 26 percent, and on all those missed shooting opportunities, we only grabbed 6 more offensive rebounds in the second half. Poor shooting + poor rebounding = 23 second half points.
Simply put, we were outplayed in the second half by a team that wanted it more. Jamie Samociuk was our spark at the end of the game - she single-handedly kept us in the game with a 3 and 2 she hit in the final minutes, as well as going 5-6 from the foul line down the stretch - but it proved not enough as the girls finished just one basket short. Highlights worth noting: Samociuk finished with a team high 5 assists and 8 defensive rebounds, Anyolina Montilla finished with a team high 6 steals and 13 overall rebounds.
Varsity Hockey
Pomfret 1 Hotchkiss 2
Jan. 8: After a long drive out to Hotchkiss, the girls came out a played one of their best first periods of the year. The used their speed and got pucks deep into the Hotchkiss zone.
Despite spending time in the offensive zone, Pomfret was not able to get many shots on net. The game never really got into any sort of rhythm with a total of ten penalties called. Halfway through the first, Hotchkiss scored off a screened shot from the point that was tipped in for Hotchkiss to go up 1-0.
The second period saw a lot of neutral zone play, but it was only Hotchkiss who was really getting quality scoring chances. In the third period, Pomfret came out flying, eager to tie the game at 1. However, it was Hotchkiss the went up by 2 on an unlucky play. As a Pomfret defender went to wrap the puck around the boards behind Pomfret’s end it caught a piece of the boards that was sticking out and sent the puck right out into Pomfret’s slot. Jaimie sprawled back across the goal to make an spectacular initial save on the first shot, but Hotchkiss was able to put in the rebound.
The girls did not give up and picked up the pace. There were six penalties called in the third period. Another bright spot was our penalty kill units, including defense Lilah Fones and Moira MacArthur. Alison Horst, Victoria Geary, Nataly Maloney and Alex Gerew play a great game of hockey today. They were smart in the offensive and neutral zone, playing their positions correctly. Furthermore, their hard work breaking the puck out forced Hotchkiss to take penalties on two different occasions against them. One of these penalties eventually lead to us being up 5 vs. 3 with 11 minutes remaining in the third.
Jordan Lipson won the draw back to Cassie Catlow on the point who fed a pass over to Candace Lu who took a one timer on net. Andi Nicholson ’13 was battling in front and knocked home the rebound to cut the lead to one. This was Andi’s second powerplay goal of the week. Pomfret continued to pressure and battle, but could not find the equalizer. Pomfret pulled Jaimie with 40 seconds remaining for one final push 6 vs. 5. Jaimie was great in net today, stopping 25 shots.