NFA girls overcome slow start to capture Class LL opener

Norwich — Norwich Free Academy needed to shake off some early lethargy in Monday night's CIAC Class LL girls' basketball tournament opener.

NFA needed to play more like Jenissa Varela.

Varela, a junior point guard, went into full pain-in-the-butt mode defensively in the second quarter to charge up her teammates. The fourth-seeded Wildcats went on to score 22 successive points and rolled to a 65-37 win over No. 29 Woodstock Academy in the first round.

“We really needed to pick up the energy, and I think that our defense started that for us,” Varela said. “We got into our 2-2-1 press and we just got a lot of steals and layups off of that.”

Varela had eight points and five steals, all of which she scored in the second quarter.

“Defense, to me, and intensity is all about heart,” NFA head coach Courtney Gomez said. “You don't have to be the best player out there to be the best defender if you play it with heart, and you play it with passion, and you play it smartly.

“Jenissa has the speed, and she has the athleticism, so when she plays with that heart along with it, she's tough. She's a tough defender. She's one of our best defenders.”

The Wildcats (20-4) will host No. 13 Greenwich in the second round on Thursday. Greenwich beat No. 20 Enfield 69-55 in the first round.

The Cardinals are 16-7. Among their wins was a 54-41 victory over reigning LL champion Norwalk in the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference quarterfinals.

Freshman Jada Mills had a gamehigh 18 points with four steals for NFA and reserve Caitlin Dooley added seven rebounds.

Kayla Gaudreau scored 10 for Woodstock (7-14), which the Wildcats beat three times this season.

NFA hadn't played since plundering Bacon Academy, 58-30, to win the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I tournament title on Feb. 22, and it showed on Monday. It led 15-13 with over seven minutes left in the first half.

"I wasn't totally surprised we came out this way just coming off a big win and then having only a couple of days of practice," Gomez said. "I had to tell them at halftime, 'you might be able to get by in this game not starting off right, but in the next round, you're not. You need to change that mentality quickly and be ready to go from the jump.

"They will be (Thursday). I think they just needed a taste of it tonight."

Varela responded with three straight steals, the first two of which she turned into layups to push the Wildcats ahead, 21-13, with 6:12 left in the quarter.

Woodstock closed to within 21-16 with 3:54 left in the quarter.

NFA never let the Centaurs get any closer. Senior Makayla Poirier-Vaughters started the Wildcats' 22-0 run with a layup, then followed with an offensive rebound that Varela converted into a layup.

Poirier-Vaughters had 11 points and five rebounds.

Ten of NFA's next 18 points were the result of four turnovers. The first two were free throws after a Varella a steal.

The run ended when on a steal by Poirier-Vaughters led to a Shante Talley layup as the Wildcats' lead ballooned to 43-16 with over six minutes left in the third quarter.

"When (Varela) can set the tone like that, the rest of us seem to follow," Gomez said. n.griffen@theday.com