Girls’ Wrap-up

Holidays 

filled with girls' 

basketball

action

By Ron P. Coderre

Following a brief hiatus for exams and holiday cheer, girls’ high school basketball action took center stage as the prep school teams went home for Christmas.

Woodstock Academy, hosting its 1st Woodstock Academy Centaur Holiday Classic, won an initial round contest and then Monday night the Centaurs beat Griswold 46-20 for the title.  Putnam, the host of the Annual Clipper Holiday Classic, was beaten in the first round of its event.

Tourtellotte, which is looking like the female team to beat in the area, won a first round battle in the Clipper Holiday Classic and will face off against Windham Tech for the 2014 crown.  Killingly, which lost to Tourtellotte, struggled losing two games in a week.  Plainfield split a pair of contests and lowly Ellis Tech lost its only game of the week.

Woodstock Headed 

to Holiday Classic Title Game

One of the best moves Woodstock athletic director Aaron Patterson has made during his brief tenure with the Centaurs was luring Willie Bousquet to coach the Academy lady hoopster.  Bousquet, one of the area’s most successful coaches, is already paying dividends.

The Acads reached the championship round by rolling past Parish Hill 50-21.  The Lady Centaurs, who were led by Galina Gruder’s 18 points, jumped out to a 30-12 halftime advantage and never looked back.  The Woodstock defense stifled the Lady Pirates, as they were unable to score in double figures in any of the four quarters.  Rebecca Messier chipped in eight points in the win.  Earlier in the week the Acads lost to Bacon Academy 52-27.  Gruder with nine points was high scorer for 2-4 Woodstock.

Putnam was not as fortunate as Woodstock as it lost in the opening round of the Clipper Holiday Classic 35-20 to Windham Tech.  The Tech defense, which held Putnam scoreless in the first period, was too much for the Lady Clippers to overcome.  Ashley Burke, with 10 points, was the high scorer for 3-2 Putnam.  In its first game back from exams Putnam doubled up on Cheney Tech, winning 32-16 behind sophomore Alyssa Espinosa’s game-high 14 points.

Tourtellotte, boasting a 4-1 record beat Killingly 43-40 in overtime, in what might turn out to be the best contest of the Clipper tourney.  The Lady Tigers of coach Carla Faucher rode the leadership and scoring of senior Jess Dodd, who took the team on her shoulders scoring 16 points.  The teams were knotted at 34-34 at the end of regulation but thanks to Dodd and Allie Ablondi (14 points) they outscored the Redgals 9-6 in the overtime period.  Deanna Lazzarra added 10 points for the winners.  Megan Bianchi with 14 points paced the Killingly offense.

Plainfield, which went 1-1 on the week, opened with a 59-41 win over Killingly.  The Lady Panthers were led by Madeline L’Orange who was game-high scorer with 22 points.  Her sister Adrienne L’Orange chipped in 11 markers and Julie Jordan added 10 for 3-3 Plainfield.  Bianchi and Karissa Slowik each had 14 points to lead the Redgals.  The Lady Panthers were topped by Cromwell 63-53 despite a double digit performance by the trio of Madeline L’Orange (17), Adrienne L’Orange (10) and Jordan (12).

Ellis Tech fell to 0-5 on the season, losing 52-16 to Wolcott Tech.

 

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