Ct Starters 16 Red vs Team Mass - Game 1 of Rhode Island Breakers Tourney. Good start to the AAU season as the Red came out and scored quick points to take an early 16 -2 lead. Apparently, we thought the game was over because we suddenly couldn't score or defend and only led 25-20 at halftime. Sarah Benedetti of Canton, Taryn Roy of East Catholic and Damika Martinez of Platt led the offensive onslaught with 7, 5 and 5 points respectively. The second half was up and down as both teams fought hard but the offensive consistency carried the Starters to victory as they also scored 25 points in the second half to win 50-44. Benedetti led the way with 10 points and 5 rebs , Kerri Stolle of Wamago finished with 9 points going a perfect 4-4 from the line and had 3 assists, Ali Berman of Hopkins dished out 4 assists and had 3 deflections. A solid first game overall.
       Game 2 vs N.E. Crusaders - Started this game down 14-3, used two of the three timeouts trying to get five focused players and eventually a combination worked as we turned the early deficit into a 26-24 halftime lead. After several quick second half adjustments the Red was actually up by 23 points and cruised to a 68-53 victory. Efficient passing was the key as Damika Martinez of Platt and Ali Berman of Hopkins continued to find players wide open. Receiving the benefit of most of those passes was Tara Higgins of East Catholic and Emily Plaza of Platt who finished with 11 and 9 points respectively. Loren Pachesa of East Catholic had 9 points and Sara Benedetti of Canton led all scorers with 16.
       Game 3 vs Albany Capitals - Either both teams struggled offensively or both teams played good defense, a combination of both accurately describes game 3 as the Starters got a 40-37 victory as Kerri Stolle of Wamago sealed the win with a steal on the Capitals last offensive possession. The offense was led by Sarah Benedetti of Canton with 10, Kerri Stolle of Wamago with 9 and Damika Martinez of Platt with 8 points. Ashley Kinney of Somers played a solid game with 6 points, 3 steals and 3 hard fought rebounds.
       Game 4 vs Western Mass Frenzy - This truly was a game of runs as one team great offensive first half with 27 points, second half the Frenzy made a nice comeback and gained the lead with 3 minutes left, however Jess Frawley of Agawam converted two huge drives to the hoop and an aggressive press led by Ashley Kinney of Somers and Kerri Stolle of Wamago resulted in timely baskets by Taryn Roy of East Catholic and a huge 3 by Loren Pachesa of East Catholic. The player with a ton of nicknames, Kerri Stolle of Wamago, then stole the ball, and with 14 seconds left Sarah Benedetti of Canton drove baseline and hit a slashing Loren Pachesa of East Catholic for a floater in the lane and a two point lead. Ashley Kinney of Somers then forced the point guard into an awkward shot and the Starters held on for a 48-46 victory and an impressive 4-0 weekend.

       Welcome to the start of the 14 Red season. We opened up the year at the CT Spirit tourney. Our first game was against the CT Heat. The girls got off to a very slow start, a definite combination of first game jitters and their 3-2 zone. We played hard, but found ourselves down at the half. In the 2nd half, we made the appropriate adjustments, Amanda Curvino (Canton HS) Juliana Houldcroft (Newington HS) and Carrie Polomsky (Wethersfield HS) started knocking down jump shots and Megan Schuppe (Northwest Catholic) and Sara Hubbard (Wethersfield HS) were getting to the basket. Our team defense was outstanding as we controlled the boards led by Molly Jalbort (Cheshire HS) and Alex Marquis (Newington HS) allowing only 10 2nd half points. Final Score, Starters 36-22.
       The CT Wave was next up for the girls. We got off to a great start, leading 16-2 behind pressure defense and execution on offense. Paige Young (Berlin HS, 5 pts) Juliana (4 pts) and Megan (10 pts) led the offensive attack in the first half. However, our defensive intensity dropped from that point on and the Wave closed the gap making it 20-16 going into the break. For much of the 2nd half we struggled to do anything offensively or defensively and the Wave took the lead. We found ourselves down 5 with fewer than 3 minutes to go; Brenna Roy (Stafford Springs, 2 pts) and Molly picked up 2 big steals which led to 4 points in transition to close the gap to one. Still needing one more defensive stop with less than 45 seconds to go, the Wave took an errant shot which gave us an opportunity to get the W. Carrie Polomsky (9 pts), hit a huge a 3 pt shot out of the time out to give us the lead for good. Final Score, Starters 40-38.
       Sunday morning came and we found ourselves playing the two time defending state champion, CT Spirit. Our strategy was to neutralize their sharp shooter Jordan Nappi, so we went to a box and one defense (Sara, Brenna, Zoe, Juliana, and Megan). We executed our game to plan to perfection but we struggled to close out on the rest of the team. We found ourselves down 25-17 at the half. The second half we picked up our intensity on the defensive end limiting them to one shot, Molly (4 pts, and 9 rebounds) forcing Turnovers in our press (Zoe Fanolis Hamden HS, 5 pts and 3 steals), which led to some easy points on our end. Carrie got hot scoring 13 (three 3’s) of her team high 17 pts in the 2nd half, and Megan (8 pts) tied the game on one of her drives to the basket with fewer than 2 minutes to. Unfortunately, the Spirit hit big shots down the stretch, ending the game on a 5-0 run. Final Score, Spirit 47-42.
       The last game of the weekend was against the Wescon Fillies. We got off to a great start behind some solid offense and pressure defense; giving us 18-4 lead eventually turning into a 25-11 lead at the half. We continued to work hard on both ends of the floor and we never looked back, final score Starters 47-33. Very balanced scoring attack; Amanda, Sara and Carrie (6 pts), Paige, Megan and Zoe (5 pts) and Brittney Needham (Hamden HS, 4 pts 6rebounds) and Alex chipped in with 4.

Back to Weekend Updates