Woodstock Academy girls’ basketball coach Will Fleeton knew the last two games of a four-game week were going to be difficult.
That proved to be accurate.
The Centaurs traveled to Colchester Jan. Jan. 12 and lost to Bacon Academy for a second time this season, 48-41.
“We didn’t start to play Woodstock basketball until Bacon went on a 13-2 run in the second quarter and we never recovered,” Fleeton said.
The Centaurs (6-4) did lead, 12-10, after the first quarter, but the Bobcats run put them up by nine at the half and they extended that to 12 by the end of the third quarter.
Heather Converse had another double-dThe senior scored 21 points and grabbed 14 rebounds while Katie Papp added 10 in the loss for Woodstock Academy.
Jan. 10 the Centaurs learned that it’s not easy to play a team that has not only speed, but quickness, not only size, but strength.
The Whalers (9-1, 2-0 Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II) bolted out to an 18-4 lead over the Centaurs thanks to the inside play of Taina Pagan and Xaryia Melendez who combined for 13 of those points.
But the Centaurs (0-2 ECC Division I) may have exposed an Achilles’ heel for New London.
Pagan (13 points, 8 rebounds) picked up her third foul with 6 minutes, 14 seconds left in the first half.
“That was part of the plan after she got a couple of fouls was to get that third one on her. She’s very smart so she didn’t commit it. We kind of forced it upon her to commit her third and then we tried to take advantage while she was gone,” Fleeton said. The Centaurs were successful in doing so.
When Pagan went out, Woodstock Academy trailed by 10, 22-12. But senior guard Aislin Tracey (8 points) hit a pair of buckets and Papp added a pair of free throws to help the Centaurs close to within six, 24-18.It was the closest they would get. The Whalers responded to the threat.
Desiree Johnson and freshman Joniyah Bland-Fitzpatrick (18 points, 12 rebounds) combined to score the next 12 points for New London without an answer from the Centaurs.
New London went into the half with a 38-20 advantage but it would have been much worse had it not been for the effort of Converse.Converse scored 10 of her 19 points in the first half.
She also pulled down 16 of the 23 rebounds the Centaurs had in the game.
Pagan returned in the third quarter and the Whalers put the lights out. Pagan scored six points but it was the play of Melendez that buried the Centaurs.
Woodstock Academy traveled to Longmeadow, Mass., to start the week and brought home a 43-31 win.
The Centaurs only led, 18-14, at the half but extended that advantage to doublequ-digits in the arter. Junior guard Kayla Gaudreau paced the Centaurs with a 12-point, four-rebound effort.
Converse, who is averaging a double-double with 11.8 points and 13.1 rebounds per game this season, put together one of those efforts with 10 points and 12 rrebounds. Tracey and Marina Monrabal each added eight.
The Centaurs followed up that effort with a 50-41 win over Waterford Jan. 8.
Monrabal, the junior point guaard scored eight points with 10 rebounds, six of those off the offensive glass, six assists and four steals. Monrabal set the tone early, getting a breakaway bucket off a steal to start the game.
Despite that effort, the Centaurs trailed, 24-23, at the break and by two points at the end of the third quarter before outscoring Waterford (3-6), 20-9, in the fourth.
The Centaurs built a 10-point lead in the fourth, only to see Waterford close to within six on a 3-pointer by Julia Bonilla (13 points). But Centaurs junior Caroline Hamill answered with a 3-pointer of her own.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy

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