caption, page 12:

 

All Smiles

Woodstock Middle School Wildcats are all smiles after winning QVJC Tournament.  Courtesy photo

 

 

 

 

Plainfield boys and

Woodstock girls

capture QVJC titles

By Ron P. Coderre

The Quinebaug Valley Conference was the envy of high school conferences for many years before its dissolution.  A spinoff of the former QVC, the Quinebaug Valley Junior Conference was formed by some farsighted junior and middle school administrators more than 50 years ago and the conference still provides exciting basketball to this day.

The 2014 championships in the boys and girls conferences were settled last week in games played in Jewett City at the Griswold Middle School.  The Plainfield Royals, using their size, captured the male competition, running over the 

smaller Woodstock Middle School.  In the female competition Woodstock Middle School girls squeaked by Thompson to win the thrilling championship.

Plainfield Royals Kings of the QVJC

Plainfield Middle School rode a balanced scoring attack and a decided height advantage as it rolled over Woodstock Middle School 72-35 as it ran away with the boys’ championship.  The Royals jumped out to a 15-4 first period advantage and built on that by outscoring Woodstock 20-7 in the second stanza to go into intermission with a commanding 35-11 advantage.  Wildcats.  The Royals capped the season with an 11-1 record. The winning Royals, coached by Al Denomme, placed three players in double figures as 10 players got into the scorebook for the winners.  The Royals were led by game high scorer Markeigh Conyers who posted 16 points.  Joining Conyers in double figures were Duncan Rivers with 14 points and Jarvin Alday with 12.

Wyatt Taylor had an outstanding game in defeat, matching Conyers for high scoring honors with 16 points.  

Woodstock Wildcats Win Wild Championship

The title game for the girls was much closer than the boys’ championship.  The game actually went down to the final seconds before Hanna Matsas scored the game winner on her only hoop of the game to give the Woodstock Wildcats a one point 31-30 thriller over the Thompson Tigers.  The victory preserved a perfect season for Woodstock which finishes at 12-0.

The game was close throughout with the Tigers taking a 14-11 first quarter lead before going completely cold in the second period.  While Woodstock was scoring 10 points in the second stanza, Thompson only had a single point in six minutes.  Woodstock led 21-15 at halftime.

Thompson came back after halftime and trailed by one 24-23 after three periods.  The teams battled even in the final quarter before Matsas scored the difference maker.  Woodstock was led by Heather Converse who had 14 points.   Dunn O’Hara chipped in five points for the winners.

Thompson, which finishes the season at 9-3, was paced by game high scorer Katey Kwasniewski who had 17 points, three coming from three-point land.  Ashley Morin chipped in six points while Maegan Roy had five markers for the Tigers.

Pomfret Middle School Girls Win QVJC Small

Led by the high scoring duo of Ariana Koivisto and Madison Brennan the Pomfret Middle School girls captured the QVJC Small Division Championship with a 46-33 win over Parish Hill in a contest played at Helen Baldwin School in Canterbury.  The winners coached by Meredith Gagnon and Kathryn Bourn posted their 11 victory in a row in winning the title.

Koivisto was the top scorer with 17 to go with her 10 assists, while Brennan, who was deadly from the outside added 14 points.  The suffocating defense was spearheaded by Arielle Johnson and Emma Sarantopoulos who had 15 big rebounds.  The team had three starters in fould trouble to begin the final quarter but Natalie Low and Madison Fisher made huge contributions to hold the Parish Hill Pirates at bay.

 

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