By Ron P. Coderre

Most high school girls’ teams concluded their regular seasons last week.  The fortunate few, Tourtellotte, Plainfield and Putnam, have conference and State tournament play to look forward to in the weeks ahead.  The unfortunate few concluded play with Woodstock Academy going out on a high note with a season ending victory.  Killingly and Ellis Tech can only look forward to next season.

The preps are also approaching tourney time with Marianapolis, Pomfret School and Hyde-Woodstock appearing to be headed to NEPSAC and SENE postseason play.

Tourtellotte and Plainfield in ECC 1st Round

Tourtellotte under coach Carla Faucher concluded its most successful regular season in many years, closing out the campaign 15-5 with a win over the East Hampton Bell Ringers 34-28.  The Lady Tigers put on a defensive clinic in the first half, holding the hosts to a mere three points as they went to the locker room at intermission on top 12-3.

Ali Ablondi, Tourtellotte’s top offensive threat all season, finished with 11 points, while her teammate Nicole Dion captured game high honors with 13 points.

The Lady Tigers entered the play-in round of the ECC Tournament seeded 11th and were pitted against sixth -seeded East Lyme.  The Lady Vikings easily dispatched Tourtellotte 49-29 as they ran away with the win from the opening tipoff.  Ablond,  with 12 points, was the lone bright spot in the 15-6 Tourtellotte offense.

Plainfield closed the books on the regular season with a pair of solid victories to end the season at 12-8.  The Lady Panthers took the measure of Killingly 58-41 and followed that win with a 62-58 victory over East Lyme. 

Alicia Cournoyer and Morganne Collins with a dozen points apiece paced the team in the win over the Redgals.  In the East Lyme win Plainfield placed four players in double figures.  Madeline Lorange with 16 points was high scorer followed by her sister Adrienne Lorange with 14, while Julie Jordan (13) and Cournoyer (11) were the other double-digit scorers.

Plainfield, seeded 12th in the ECC Tournament, was eliminated in the play-in round 42-31 by 5th seeded Waterford.  The Lady Panthers who didn’t have a player in double figures fell behind 18-5 after one quarter and never recovered.  Plainfield is 12-9 as it awaits the seedings for the CIAC State tourney.

Killingly lost its final game of the season to Woodstock Academy 43-33.  The season ended at 2-18 for the Redgals, while the Acads closed the books at 3-17.  The “Bousqueteers” of coach Willie Bousquet received a superb performance from Rebecca Messier who captured game-high honors with 19 points.  Killingly’s high scorer was Morgan Harriot with 13 points.

Putnam took it on the nose from Capital Prep 76-23 but got up off the canvas to beat Cheney Tech 29-28, moving to 9-10 on the season.  Putnam’s one-two punch of Makenzie Kaylor (9) and Cynthia Briere (8) were coach Mandi Hogan’s top point producers.

Ellis Tech ran out the string at 0-20 losing to Windham Tech 64-26 and Prince Tech 63-15.

Light Schedule for Preps

Pomfret School raised its record to 14-5 with a pair of victories in a perfect week.  The Lady Griffins opened the week with a 61-49 win over St. George’s School.  Mary Redmond was the game-high scorer with 22 points, while her teammate Juliette Lawless chipped in 19 points.

Pomfret then hosted Westminster School and weren’t very cordial as they took the Westies to school 48-25.  Lawless with 17 points was the top scorer for Pomfret, which built a halftime advantage of 26-9 allowing coach Rebecca Brooks to substitute freely in the second half.

Hyde-Woodstock split a pair of contests on the week.  The Wolfpack beat Marianapolis II 32-31 in a game that went down to the wire.  Cossou Ndiaye hit both ends of a one-on-one situation in the waning seconds of the game to ice the victory and drop Marianapolis II to 5-10 on the season.

In the quarterfinals of the SENE Tournament, the Wolfpack was beaten by the Wheeler School 47-29.  Janicha Diaz with 16 points was the lone bright spot for Hyde-Woodstock, which now stands at 5-11 on the season. Marianapolis I lost its only game of the week to Tabor Academy 61-53 to go to 14-6 on the year, despite double-double performances by Madison Springfield and Rachel Aho.  Springfield posted 24 points and 14 boards, while Aho had 14 and 14.

      Scoring Leaders: Janicha Diaz – Hyde-Woodstock – 15.5; Meagan Bianchi – Killingly – 14.9; Alyzae Davis – Pomfret School – 14.5; Ali Ablondi – Tourtellotte – 13.8; Juliette Lawless – Pomfret School – 13.6.

Three-point Leaders: Ali Ablondi – Tourtellotte – 33; Mary Redmond – Pomfret School – 30; Adrienne Lorange – Plainfield – 24.

RPC’s Super Standings: Tourtellotte – 15-5; Marianapolis I – 14-5; Pomfret School – 13-5; Plainfield – 11-8; Putnam – 9 - 10; Marianapolis II – 5-10; Hyde-Woodstock – 5-11; Woodstock Academy – 3-17; Killingly – 2-18; Ellis Tech – 0-20.

 

..