By Ron P. Coderre

It’s hard to believe but with the holidays in the rear view mirror the girls’ high school basketball is already nearing the mid-point of the season.

In a week that featured all six schoolgirl teams in the Putnam Town Crier area in action no one team appears to be dominant at this juncture.  Most teams’ records, with the exception of Ellis Tech (1-6) are hovering around the .500 plateau.  Three schools, Woodstock Academy, Tourtellotte and Putnam, all posted two-win weeks.  

Killingly, which is having its best season in many moons split a pair of games, while the Lady Techsters and Plainfield suffered through winless weeks.

Woodstock Picking Up Steam 

Under Fleeton

The Woodstock Academy girls’ basketball team under first-year head coach Will Fleeton played three games to open the 2016 portion of its schedule and picked up a pair of wins.  The victories leveled the Centaurs record at 4-4.

After opening the week with a heart breaking 41-40 loss at the hands of Ledyard, Woodstock bounced back with convincing wins over Waterbury Career (55-25) and Killingly (55-28).

In the Ledyard contest the Lady Centaurs entered the final quarter nursing a 31-24 lead but couldn’t withstand a fourth-quarter rally by the Lady Colonels, who outscored the Acads 16-10 in the final eight minutes.  Freshman Ari Koivisto with 11 points and Mackenzie Cayer with 10 points paced the Woodstock offense.

A long road trip to Waterbury proved to be worthwhile as the Acads came home with a big win over Waterbury Career.  Koivisto (14) and Cayer (10) were the point leaders in the win.  In a game that mattered for local bragging rights, Woodstock rolled past Killingly in a surprisingly easy 27-point victory.  Jamie Woods led a balanced Centaur scoring attack with 16 points, as the defense held Killingly’s high-scoring Meagan Bianchi to four points.  Reagan Morin with 10 points was high scorer for the Redgals.

In its only other game of the week, Killingly stormed back with a strong second half performance to edge Montville 32-30.  Bianchi with nine points led seven Killingly scorers as the Redgals outscored Montville 23-14 in the final 16 minutes.  Killingly is 5-4 overall and 1-2 in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Medium Division.

Tourtellotte opened the week with two victories before falling at the hands of Windham 48-28.  The 4-4 Lady Tigers fell behind 22-10 after one period and never recovered.  Abby Poirier with 10 points was the lone Tourtellotte player in double figures.

The Lady Tigers opened the week with a convincing 56-32 win over Wheeler to the delight of the home folks.  Poirier (16) and Emily Vincent (14) accounted for 30 of Tourtellotte’s 56 points.  In their next game coach Carla Faucher’s ladies trounced Putnam 55-38 as Poirier with 21 points led all scorers.  Vincent chipped in 12 as Tourtellotte outscored Putnam 47-30 over the final three stanzas.  Tourtellotte is 1-2 in the ECC Small Division.  Alyssa Espinosa had 16 points for Putnam in the loss.

Putnam raised its record to 5-4 on the season and 4-1 in the Constitution State Conference with two wins following the loss to Tourtellotte.  The Lady Clippers romped over Ellis Tech 49-8 as Maria Fredette tallied a game high 21 points and Olivia Braithwaite was like Windex, cleaning the glass with 17 rebounds.

In another CSC East Division contest Putnam squeaked by a stubborn Parish Hill team 37-32.  The Lady Clippers led by Espinosa (11) and Braithwaite (10), withstood a final period Parish Hill rally for the win.

Plainfield, which is struggling at 3-4 and 1-2 in the ECC Medium Division lost to Stonington 61-56 despite 15 points from Zoe Beaver and 13 from Madeline Lorange.  The Lady Panthers fell 62-38 to Bacon Academy in their final game of the week.  Julie Jordan with 24 points was the lone bright spot for Plainfield.

In its only other game of the week Ellis Tech was dropped by Windham Tech 48-28.  The Lady Eagles who are 1-6 on the season and 1-2 in the CSC East Division were led by Emily Mead with 14 points.

The two prep game played involved the Marianapolis Lady Knights who lost 47-43 to Rivers School and Pomfret School, which beat Governor’s Academy 47-36.  Olivia Summiel had 13 points and seven rebounds in the Marianapolis loss.  Alyzae Davis with 15 points paced a balanced Pomfret scoring attack in the win over Governor’s.