On list
POMFRET — Four local students were named to the Pomfret School honor list for the spring 2020 term: Kellen Horst of Pomfret, ’22; Angelo Rovero of N. Grosvenordale, ’23; Zachary Stolarek of Pomfret Center, ’21; Brooke Zahansky of Pomfret Center, ’22.


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Photo courtesy of the Putnam Fire Department.


Driver cited in accident
PUTNAM — A 17-year-old was cited for failure to obey a traffic control after a crash at the intersection of Rt. 171 and West Thompson Rd.
Putnam Police Captain Justin Lussier said the accident around 4:30 p.m. Dec 26 happened when a 2007 Toyota Tundra operated by Rolland Lafond, 46, of Woodstock was traveling south on Rt. . 171 through the intersection at West Thompson Rd. when a 2001 Subaru Forester operated by a 17-year-old female entered the intersection traveling westbound and collided with the Tundra. Then the Subaru Forester hit a DOT electric box.
Police said the 17-year-old failed to stop for a red light at the intersection.  Putnam EMS took two passengers in the Tundra to Day Kimball Hospital for suspected minor injuries.  The Putnam Fire Department also responded to assist with the scene.

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In spurts, the first half of the PSA girls’ basketball season has been good. In spurts.
The Mustangs Prep Black team opened the season with three convincing wins, then dropped four in a row despite holding a lead in each, before closing the first semester with wins over two solid teams.
“We’ve talked about this as a team, that we can be very good, that we have a chance to be very good,” coach Devin Hill said. “We’re inconsistent right now, I think we would all agree to that.
“I’m not talking about you ordinary basketball, game of runs. I’m talking about our energy, about we’re not playing well. And not because of anything the other team is doing, but just because we’re not playing well. But I think we’ve shown enough and understand that if we do certain things better, then we can have a really good second half of the year.”
Sitting at 5-4, the Mustangs could very easily be 8-1. But they’re not, and Hill is nothing if not a realist. He won’t allow his team to make excuses, he just fully expects them to make the adjustments. And winning those last two games, at the highly-visible She Got Game Classic in Washington, D.C., just before the break, could go a long way.
“After the first three games, I thought we felt really good about ourselves,” Hill said, “and I think we got punched in the face a little bit after that, which is OK. We responded, and we responded well.”
The Mustangs, who have proven to be more explosive offensively than Hill anticipated especially when shooting 3-pointers, have been led by sophomore Ines Goryanova, a point guard from London who is already widely regarded as one of the top two players in New England; Molly Moffitt, a do-it-all postgrad from Seattle; and Janeya Grant, another sophomore from Portland, Conn., who can light it up.
Moffitt leads the team with 14.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, with Grant right there at 13.3 points per game. But it is Goryanova, averaging 13.5 points and 5.5 assists, who is the key to it all.
“Ines makes everything go,” Hill said. “That’s the best way to say it. You don’t always necessarily notice during the games. You can be like ‘Oh, that was a good play,” but when you go back and watch the game, it’s just ridiculous. The vision she has, the understanding, the IQ.
“As far as making people better, now people understand that the better she does with the way she plays, the better everyone is going to look. I hope that’s resonated by now, and I think it has.”
PSA has played a hellacious schedule already, especially when considering the travel. Two days after playing at Life Center Academy in southern New Jersey, they played at Westtown (Penn.) and Blair Academy (N.J.) on back-to-back nights. There are few, if any, teams in the country that would do that. The Mustangs also traveled six hours to Maryland to participate in the Super Scrimmage and take on some of the better teams in the country, including consensus No. 1 Sidwell Friends.
“I’m not saying no one else plays good teams in New England. That’s not true, I’m not saying that,” Hill said. “The way we do it and the stress that we put on these girls really is a lot. But I do think we’re going to be better for it, that it’s going to pay off in February, and that is the key.”
By Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy

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