East Hampton wins fifth Shoreline title
The East Hampton girls basketball team won its fifth straight Shoreline Conference tournament title Friday night with a 62-44 victory over Morgan.
The Bellringers, last year’s Class M champions, also won their 44th straight game, dating back to last January.
“It kind of sneaks up on you,” East Hampton coach Shaun Russell said. “There’s never a time in the history of sports, where you go say, ‘OK, let’s go win blank in a row.’ Kids have done a great job of kind of moving through the schedule. We’ve been trying to stay focused on each opponent.
“I think during different stages of this where the kids have been aware where they’re at, folks on the outside remind them and are keeping better track of it than we are. The kids have worked hard to be in the situation they’re in so they deserve to enjoy it some too.”
East Hampton (23-0) gets a first-round bye and will face the winner of the Plainfield-seymour game Thursday night at home in a second round matchup.
Top performers Kamaria Bowens, Windsor:
Bowens had a game-high 19 points to lead Windsor over Northwest Catholic 66-52 in the CCC tournament championship game Thursday. Bowens had 16 points in a 49-39 win over Conard in the semifinal Tuesday.
Jenna Garrow, Ellington: Garrow scored 14 points to help Ellington to a 42-37 victory in the NCCC tournament championship game Thursday.
Ava Johnson, Morgan: Johnson had 22 points and five rebounds, three assists and three steals in a 62-32 win over Haddam-killingworth in a Shoreline tournament semifinal game Tuesday.
Emily Knowles, Conard: Knowles scored 20 points in a loss to Windsor in the CCC semifinals Tuesday.
Olivia Matthews, Suffield: Matthews scored the game-winning basket with six seconds left in a 44-43 win over Somers in the NCCC tournament semifinal game Tuesday. She had 10 points and 10 rebounds and six assists.
Maiara Rodriguez, Innovation: Rodriguez had a triple-double (10 points, 14 steals, 12 assists) in a 66-31 win over Classical in the CRAL tournament championship game Thursday and had 15 points, six rebounds and six steals in a 37-27 semifinal win over Parish Hill.
Hazel Qua, Suffield: Qua had 15 points in a 42-37 loss to Ellington in the NCCC tournament championship game Thursday and a double-double (14 rebounds, 13 points) in a 44-43 semifinal win over Somers Tuesday.
Liana Salamone, East Hampton: Salamone had 26 points in the 62-44 win over Morgan in the Shoreline Conference tournament championship game Friday and 28 points in a 61-50 win over North Branford in the semifinal game Wednesday.
Maeve Staunton, Northwest Catholic:
Staunton scored 13 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter, but her team lost to Windsor in the CCC tournament championship game Thursday. Staunton also had 18 points in a semifinal win over Simsbury Tuesday.
Sequoia Turcotte-briggs, Classical: Turcotte-briggs had 17 points to lead her team in a loss to Innovation in the CRAL championship game Thursday and 39 points in a 44-31 semifinal win over International/aerospace Tuesday.
Storylines of the week
Senior Ayanna Franks scored her 2,000th point and Windsor won its first CCC tournament championship since 2007, when coach Brittany Huggins was a senior for the Warriors. Windsor, the 12th seed, beat No. 2 seeded Northwest Catholic, 66-52 Thursday night at the University of Hartford.
Ellington won the NCCC tournament championship, 42-37 over Suffield Thursday for the first time since 2013. The Knights (20-3) are top-seeded in the Class MM tournament.
Games to watch
The state tournament opens this week with first round games taking place Monday and Tuesday and the conference champions have to shift gears statewide now. Windsor, the 10th seed in Class L, will host No. 23 Notre Dame-fairfield Tuesday at 6 p.m. Ellington will play Friday against the winner of Watertown-brookfield at home at 6:30 p.m.