Eagles upend Hatters on the way to title tilt

TRUMBULL — Since playing on the 2018 FCIAC championship team her freshman season, Trumbull’s Cassi Barbato has dreamed of returning to the conference finals.

Now as a senior, she and the rest of the Trumbull girls basketball team are on their way after beating Danbury 57-45 in the FCIAC semifinals on Wednesday night.

“Freshman year we went to the finals and it was so exciting. I am so glad our team is back there. We have really grown and it’s great to be rewarded,” Barbato said. “I think we used everyone. Everyone scored. If you look in the box score nobody really stands out. Everyone got shots, everyone made shots. We played hard defense and that’s all we wanted to 57 45

do.”

Trumbull will be going for its fifth FCIAC title against Ridgefield in Saturday’s championship. The Tigers beat St. Joseph 64-51 in Wednesday’s other semipoint, final.

Barbato led Trumbull with 18 points with junior Emi Roberto adding 16.

Trumbull never trailed in the game, moving the ball well all night and playing tight team defense.

Barbato was asked to defend standout Danbury guard Kianna Perry, and she did so with aplomb, holding the junior to just two points.

“Cassi’s leadership and taking the responsibility of guarding the other team’s best player fueled the fire for everyone else,” Trumbull coach Steve Tobitsch said. “When you get to this you have to rely on your seniors and we have four terrific seniors and this is their last rodeo. They remember what happened her last year when we played Ridgefield in the semifinals and how hurt they were. Tonight was a different level of effort than we had 12 months ago. This was possibly our seniors’ last game at home and that means something to them.”

Trumbull was knocked out in the FCIAC semifinals last season by Ridgefield.

Trumbull led 28-16 at the half, but a 9-0 Danbury run quickly cut the lead to 2825. However, a 3-pointer from the corner by Julia Lindwall stopped the Hatters’ rally.

Trumbull rebuilt the lead to 10 by the end of the third.

“I think we executed parts of our game plan really well,” Danbury assistant coach Melissa Teel said. “I was really proud of their defensive effort, but we had lapses in our defense. In our game plan we talked about (Barbato) who scored 33 against us last game. We held her to 18 points today. But we let other players step up for them this game. We weren’t able to put four quarters of basketball together unfortunately.”

Danbury was without head coach Jackie DiNardo who was forced to quarantine away from the team after a possible exposure to COVID-19.

With Perry being held in check by Barbato, Danbury spread the scoring around with Amar’Ryi Edwards scoring 14 and Tianna Rogers and Chloe Perreault scoring 13 apiece.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Cassi Barbato, Trumbull. The senior was focused on

defense early on but exploded for 9 of her 18 points in the third quarter.

QUOTABLE

“I wanted to (guard Perry),” Barbato said. “You want to guard the best players in the league. I wanted to take that responsibility

and I knew my team would have my back. I love challenges and that was a challenge.”

Sericson @stamfordadvocate.com; @EricsonSports

TRUMBULL 57, DANBURY 45

TRUMBULL ................. 14 14 12 17 —57 DANBURY .................... 10 6 14 15 — 45 TRUMBULL

Emma Gentry 1 0-1 3; Emi Roberto 7 0-0 16; Sarah Stolze 2 2-5 7; Amanda Ruchalski 0

0-0 0; Megan Garrity 0 0-0 0; Caroline Cummings 0 0-0 0; Corinn Ouellette 0 0-0 0; Lauryn Wright: 0 0-0 0; Julia Lindwall 2 2-4 7; Grace Lesko 3 0-0 6; Cassi Barbato 7 2-2 18; Grace Trotta: 0 0-0 0; Mary Lynch: 0 0-0 0; Brooke Guimont 0 0-0 0. Totals: 22 6-12 57 DANBURY

Tianna Rogers 5 5-6 15; Kianna Perry 1 0-0 2; Chloe Perrault 6 0-0 13; Jolie Osborne 0 0-0

0; Viviana Flores 1 0-0 3; Reagan Lalor 0 0-0

0; Amar’ryi Edwards 6 0-0 12. Totals: 19 5-6

45

3-point field goals: T — Gentry; Roberto 2; Stolze; Lindwall; Barbato 2. D — Perrault, Flores

Fouled out: none