St. Paul denies Oxford to advance to championship game

NAUGATUCK — Next stop: The Sun.

The second-seeded St. Paul girls basketball team will play for another state championship after beating No. 3 Oxford 50-32 in Friday night’s CIAC Class M semifinals at Naugatuck High School.

It’s been a while since the St. Paul girls basketball team played for a state title. This will be the Falcons first trip to the title game in a decade.

St. Paul lost to Thomaston in the 2014 Class S finale. The Falcons last won a state title in 2010 when St. Paul captured the Class S title.

This will be St. Paul head coach Joe Mone’s sixth trip to a state title game, but the first he’s led the Falcons to at the Mohegan Sun Arena. He’s been in charge of the St. Paul girls basketball teams for 29 years.

“It’s been a while,” Mone said when asked about going back to play for a state title. “It’s everyone’s goal at the beginning of the season and it’s nice to see it realized.”

“Last year we fell a little short and that kind of sat with us all year,” Mone added. “I just know I’m not as happy as they are, but I’m happy. That’s for sure.”

St. Paul will face fifthseeded Windham on either March 16 or 17 at Mohegan Sun. Windham upset the team that ended St. Paul’s season a year ago in the state quarterfinals by defeating top-seeded East Hampton 44-42 in Friday night’s other Class M semifinal. It was East Hampton’s first loss of the season.

St. Paul improved to 23-3 with Friday’s win. Oxford’s season ended at 19-5.

While senior guard Audrey Tice led all scorers with 18 points, the Falcons’ size ultimately wore down Oxford.

Senior forward Rebecca Kelly scored all 16 of her points in the paint — 11 in the third quarter when the Falcons turned a competitive 23-17 halftime lead into a 36-23 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

St. Paul, which beat its NVL rival 62-40 during the regular season, never led than less than 10 points in the fourth quarter.

“It’s really exciting (to play at The Sun),” Tice said. “We worked really hard all year so I’m really happy.”

A slow St. Paul start allowed Oxford to lead 11-8 after the first quarter.

Tice’s second of three 3pointers, however, gave the Falcons their first lead and the lead for good, 1615, with 3:17 left in the first half. St Paul outscored the Wolverines 15-6 in the second quarter when Oxford missed 10 of 13 shots and all four of its 3-point attempts.

“I thought we played terrible in the first half, but I looked up and we were up six or seven. That’s a good sign,” Mone said. “You just have to fight through these kinds of games.”

Oxford’s shooting woes continued after halftime when the Wolverines missed six of their first seven shots. Oxford made just three field goals in the third quarter to fall behind by as many as 15 points.

Tice, meanwhile, created plenty of offense for others after halftime.

After her 13 points in the first half steadied the Falcons, she got others involved with several of her game-high nine assists. Drawing a constant defender all night, Tice’s court vision led to easy Kelly hoops.

“I think (Tice) is one of the best players in the state,” Mone said. “She controls the flow of the game. She just sees everything.”

“If you’re going (to state title games), the seniors bring you,” Mone added. “In the end, someone you don’t expect may have a great game. But the seniors will get you there because they are fighting for their lives.”

One major factor in St. Paul’s ability to pull away was the connection between its senior duo of Tice and Kelly. The pair worked the pick-and-roll to perfection several times for easy Kelly layups in the third quarter.

“That’s one of my favorite plays, because it works. (Tice) is such good passer and knows where to get the ball to me. It’s a really good play for us,” said Kelly about her connection with Tice.

“In the second half, I found out all I had to do was power up because we had them on size and strength,” added Kelly, who nearly had her second straight doubledouble with seven rebounds.

Kelly scored 23 points and had 15 rebounds in St. Paul’s 49-29 victory over Granby in the quarterfinals.

“As I got more confidence, I started to make more layups,” Kelly added.

As for going to Mohegan Sun and playing for a state title?

“It’s insane,” Kelly said. “It’s obviously what we wanted all season. We made it to the semifinals two years ago and got absolutely demolished, so to take that next step is just really outstanding and I’m so proud of this team.”

Kelly wasn’t alone in dominating in the paint. St. Paul forwards Ava Stevenson, Zoia Cudjoe and Aniya Moore each proved too much for the Wolverines inside.

The quartet continuously grabbed offensive rebounds that led to secondand third-chance points for the Falcons. It was St. Paul’s size that concerned Oxford head coach Nora Curley before the ball was tipped Friday night.

“We had a gameplan going in, but unfortunately we didn’t box out,” Curley said. “We kind of stalled in the third quarter and couldn’t get anything going offensively. And they just kept coming at us and coming at us.”

“I tried to make some adjustments, but it just wasn’t our night,” Curley added.

Ava Kycia led Oxford with 12 points, while Juliana Brimecombe added 11.