CCC tournament starts to heat up

As expected, the CCC girls basketball tournament has been interesting so far.

No. 12 seed Windsor knocked off No. 5 E.O. Smith in the first round 65-46 and fourth-seeded Newington 51-33 in the quarterfinals. Now Windsor gets to face last year’s runner-up Conard, the top seed, in the semifinals Tuesday.

“I think the girls are feeling excited, motivated; I truly do think they’re up for the challenge,” Windsor coach Brittany Huggins said. “I’m excited to see how they perform (Tuesday) against a really good team.”

The two teams have not played each other this season.

The other side of the bracket mostly behaved, although No. 6 seed Glastonbury — who knocked off last year’s CCC champion Simsbury in the final regular season game 44-39, lost to No. 11 Berlin 52-48 in the first round of the conference tournament. No. 2 Northwest Catholic will face No. 3 Simsbury, last year’s champion, also on Tuesday in the semifinals.

Top performances of the week

Avery Brown, Canton: Brown had 25 points in a 64-49 win over SMSA Wednesday in the play-in round of the NCCC tournament and 22 points in a 55-24 win over Rockville Monday. Abigail Casper, Northwest Catholic: Casper scored 34 points in a 65-43 win over Manchester in the first round of the CCC tournament Thursday and had 22 points in a 55-44 win over Southington Monday.

Niya Islam, Bolton: Islam scored 25 points in a 50-34 win over Lyman Memorial last Monday.

Emily Knowles, Conard: Knowles scored 32 points in a 63-41 win over Rocky Hill in the CCC tournament quarterfinals Saturday and 20 points in a 46-41 victory over Southington in the first round of the tournament Thursday.

Kylie Lake, Old Saybrook: Lake had a double-double (22 points, 16 rebounds) and six blocks in a 66-24 win over Old Lyme in the Shoreline Conference tournament Thursday.

Hazel Qua, Suffield: Qua had 14 rebounds and 13 points in a 40-29 win over East Granby in the NCCC tournament play-in round Wednesday.

Maiara Rodriguez, Innovation: Rodriguez had 11 points, 10 rebounds and 10 steals in a 31-26 win over Weaver Wednesday for the first triple-double in school history.

Maeve Staunton, Northwest Catholic: Staunton had 23 points in a 64-49 victory over Middletown in a CCC tournament quarterfinal game Saturday.

Audrey Tice, St. Paul: Tice scored her 1,000th point and had 18 points in a 48-41 win over Torrington in the NVL tournament quarterfinals Saturday and had 28 points in a 57-44 victory over Woodland Wednesday.

Mikaela Williams, Windsor: Williams scored 21 points in a 65-46 win over E.O. Smith in a first-round CCC tournament game and 17 against Newington in a 51-33 CCC quarterfinal game victory Saturday.

Storylines of the week

Liana Salamone became the all-time girls basketball leading scorer in East Hampton history Saturday in a 70-18 Shoreline Conference tournament quarterfinal win over Cromwell. Salamone, who had 30 points in a win over North Branford last week, had eight points against Cromwell and now has 1,481 points.

Bailey Winner of East Windsor became her school’s all-time leading scorer for girls basketball when she scored 20 points in a 55-33 win over Classical last Monday. As of Feb. 12, Winner had 1,171 points, surpassing Loren D’agostino (1,166) as the leading scorer.

Keith Raczkowski, who coached at Naugatuck for 21 years and has coached at South Windsor for the last seven years, got his 400th career victory on Feb. 5, a 60-51 win over Tolland. South Windsor (8-12) is waiting for the CIAC Class LL tournament pairings to be announced Wednesday.

Games to watch this week Windsor (14-7) vs. Conard (19-3), CCC tournament semifinal, Tuesday, 8 p.m., University of Hartford:

Emily Knowles and Callie Cosgrove, both 1,000 point scorers as juniors, will go up against Windsor’s Ayanna Franks and Kamaria Bowens, a transfer from New Jersey in what should be one of the better games of the season. Simsbury (19-3) vs. Northwest Catholic (18-4), CCC tournament semifinal, Tuesday, 6 p.m., University of Hartford: Simsbury, last year’s CCC champion, beat Northwest Catholic, last year’s Class S champion, 50-42 on Jan. 10 at home in the first matchup this season.

Somers (16-5) vs. Suffield (17-5), NCCC tournament semifinal, 7 p.m., East Granby: Third-seeded Somers beat No. 7 Suffield on Feb. 5, 51-46 but Suffield hasn’t lost since then.