Hello Sport fans. Its Virginia with a recap of 14 Red's first tourney. 14 Red opened up the 2008 AAU season by participating in the Ct Spirit Classic in Hartford last weekend. It was a huge sucess for the team. They went 4-0 and won by an average of 25 points.
       The first game of the weekend was a great game for Starters. They defeated the Rhode Island Breakers by the score of 65-60. We went 18-25 from the free throw line. Sarah Royals (Torrington HS) led the winners with 18 and made 10 of 15 free throws. Nicole Bentley (Hamden HS) added 17 and made two 3 pointers. Sara Benedetti (Canton HS) had 11 as the Breaker wouldn't go away in the second half.
       The second game pitted us against the Western Mass Falcons. We won 60-22 and all nine players scored. Taryn Roy(East Catholic HS) led us with 12 points on 6-11 shooting. Loren Pachesa (East Catholic HS) and Sarah Royals each had 10 points. Mariah Berry (St Paul HS) helped out with 7 points on 3-3 shooting from the field. Jess Frawley(Agawam HS) had 5 points on 2-3 shooting from the floor.
       Our first game on Sunday was at 8:40 in the MORNING. I love those early morning games! Please, more of them for 14 Red. We played a very pesky South Central Sharks. After a slow start, we perked it up and easily won 65-43. Once again, all nine players scored. Sara Benedetti scored a game high 16 points and made 5-6 free throws. Loren Pachesa scored 12 and was perfect from the free throw line. Nicole Bentley had 9 points before tweaking an ankle.
       The last game of the weekend saw us play the NE Lighting. We raced out to a 31-17 halftime lead. The final score was 58-25. Sarah Royals and Loren Pachesa shared high game honors with 14. Sara Benedetti chipped in with 9. Ashley Kinney (Somers HS) had 6 on nice driving layups. Emily Kessler (Canton HS) also scored 5 for the winners.
       Final Recap - It was nice to get on the court and play some games. We had ten practices before that first tournament. The girls work habits have been excellent. I saw some great things from the team. We will continue to get better! We are off for a week until we hit the courts in New York(April 19-20). We wish a speedy recovery to Nicole. Hope you enjoyed the Magic Cookie bars and see ya soon, Virginia.

       First off I would like to congratulate 14 Red and coach Vinny Cianfranni for going 4-0 over the weekend. Unfortunately, for 13 Red, we didn’t have the same luck.
       Our first game was against a very good RI Breakers team. This game was a tale of two halves as we came out strong in the first with some timely shooting by Kristen Van Gilst (Harwinton, two 3’s and 8 pts total) and execution of the match-up zone got us out to 9-2 lead. The Breakers started to right the ship and the half ended with the Starters holding an 18-16 lead. However, the second half belonged to the Breakers as they outscored us 35-10 to end the game. AJ Levy (Meriden) and Emily Durocher (Southington) chipped in with 5 pts apiece. Final Score, Breakers 51-28.
       The second game kind of started just like the last one ended for the Starters. Triple Threat Elite jumped out to a 16-2 lead before you knew it. After an inspirational timeout our defense picked up, as did our intensity, and we cut the lead to 17-12 and closed the half down 21-16. The momentum was definitely in our favor as the 2nd half continued, but you have to give the opposition credit for making big basket after big basked. AJ Levy kept us close as she led us with a team high 15 pts but we couldn’t get any closer then 4. Their depth, constant pressure and our inability to knock down a shot kept us from getting over the hump. Emily Durocher added 7 in the loss.
       Sunday’s games were both very competitive from start to finish; the first one was against another RI Breakers team. Much like the first game on Saturday we had the lead going into the half 14-13. We stretched our lead out to 8 pts early into the 2nd half, as Brianna McClelland (Glastonbury) Haley Donahue (Vernon) and Meghan McLaughlin (Southington, 12pts) caused havoc, forcing turnover after turnover. However, our lead slowly disappeared and we found ourselves down 5 with under a minute to go. Claire Laing’s (Rocky Hill, 5pts) 3 pter cut the lead to 2 with under 30 secs to play, unfortunately that would be as close as we would get. Breakers win 36-32. Kristen Van Gilst chipped in with 8 pts in the loss.
       Our last game was against the CT Cheetahs, who was undefeated going into the game. They are a very good team, with two fine coaches. This was by far our best and most complete game of the weekend. We fought hard from start to finish and I was really pleased with their efforts. The lead went back and forth throughout; Kayleigh Shaughnessey (Enfield) and Gabriella DeSisto (Hamden) paced the defense inside and Ashley Petrarca (Woodbury) led the scoring attack in the first half. We trailed 31-27 at the half. In the 2nd half we attacked the basket strong getting to the free throw line multiple times especially Kristen Van Gilst, AJ Levy, and Meghan McLaughlin. However, our fortune from the charity stripe was 15-41!!! The Cheetahs answered the challenge and made big baskets to the end the game. Final Score, Cheetahs 54-46. Meghan McLaughlin led us with 12 pts, Kristen Van Gilst and AJ Levy chipped in with 11 and 9 respectively in the loss.

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