Hand oustlasts Hillhouse

MADISON — Hand basketball coach Tim Tredwell knows how hard it is to beat a team three times in a season. He also knows how hard it is to advance in the league playoffs.

After 36 minutes of intense basketball, Tredwell and his second-seeded Lady Tigers accomplished both with a 55-50 victory over seventh-seeded Hillhouse in the quarterfinals of the Southern Connecticut Conference tournament at Hand High School Saturday afternoon.

Hand advanced to the semifinals and will face third-seeded Mercy, a 47-38 winner over Guilford, Monday evening at 5 p.m. at Jonathan Law in Milford.

“It is amazing,” Tredwell said after his team improved to 19-3 with the victory. “This group is probably one of the most even-keeled groups I have ever coached. As a coach, you try to get them all excited, but they just stay steady at all times. They don’t get too low. They don’t get too high. They just go out there and take care of business.”

With the game even at 47 after regulation, the Tigers took over with an 8-3 overtime run.

Sophia Coppola, who finished with 20 points, set the tone when she drained a 3-pointer to give Hand a 50-47 advantage. Hillhouse’s Trinity Moody followed with a 3-pointer to even the game at 50, but Hand’s Brooke Salutari hit the only other field goal in the extra session for a 52-50 lead.

The Academics had plenty of opportunities in the extra session to tie or take the lead, but they could not convert. Free throws by Maya Blomberg and Coppola iced the game and sent the Tigers back to the semifinals.

“We were really confident,” Coppola said. “We knew that we could pull it off. We had each other’s backs, so we just kept our intensity up and kept going.”

The extra session was needed as Hillhouse rallied with a pair of buckets in the final four seconds of regulation, both by Nielle Reaves. Reaves cut the deficit to 47-45 and after Hand could not hold on to the ball, Hillhouse picked up the loose ball and Reaves hit a runner at the buzzer.

“They are just so hyperathletic,” Tredwell said of Reaves and the Academics. “They are just so tough.

Their coach is great. That number 30 (Trinity Moody) is one of the fastest human beings I have ever seen and Nielle Reaves just hits shots. She hits tough shots. She is such a tough kid.”

For Hillhouse coach Catrina Hawley-Stewart, it was a game and final 12 minutes of missed opportunities.

“Our girls executed at the end and going into overtime we had a plan,” HawleyStewart said after her team fell to 13-9. “They really couldn’t stay with Trinity (Moody). We didn’t make the free throws at the end. That could have kept us in the game. It was a really good game. Hand is our rival. We would have loved to have had this win, but now we just have to prepare for states.”

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Sophia Coppola — Hand senior finished with a game-high 20 points, including clutch 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and overtime.

QUOTABLE

“I am super proud of them. To show that level of toughness on a Saturday afternoon game against a team that is just very, very good, it was just really, really impressive.”

— Hand coach Tim Tredwell