The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Raiders fall short
St. Paul tops Torrington in NVL behind Tice, defense
WATERBURY – Three times was the charm for St. Paul Catholic’s girls basketball team in a 47-44 NVL Tournament semifinal win over Torrington in their third meeting of the season Monday evening at Kennedy High School.
Torrington had two close wins over the Falcons in the regular season and might have made a second comeback attempt work in this one with a little more time.
“I needed one more time out,” said Torrington coach Mike Fritch. “We played hard.”
Nevertheless, despite a slight meltdown to Torrington’s traps at the end, the Falcons had the bases covered for most of the night.
“We worked on our defense,” said Assistant Coach Chelsea Mone, filling in for her father, Joe Mone, home with a stomach virus. “Our game plan was to play great defense and come prepared.”
Still, neither team could have prepared for an onslaught of seven threepointers by All-NVL guard Audrey Tice (4 three’s) and Olivia Dahn (3), the tipping point in a defensive battle.
“We’ve been on and off the whole season,” said Dahn.
“We just tried to play with intensity,” said Tice.
Tice and Dahn shared team scoring honors with forward Rebecca Kelly with 13 points apiece. Kelly was the third leg in St. Paul’s offense with all her points underneath the basket.
Meanwhile, St. Paul’s man-to-man defensive efforts worked on all the Raiders except Haley Burger (game-high 20 points) in the first half. The Falcons had a size advantage at almost every position except Burger, a longarmed All-NVL guard.
The mismatches forced Torrington out of its own early man-to-man coverage into a zone that left them with a taste of Tice’s hot shooting night.
Still, when Tice’s second three of the first quarter marked a 12-6 Falcon advantage, Burger led a 7-0 Torrington run to a 1312 lead at the end of the quarter, with a pair of foul shots (7-for-8 for the night), an assist to Rachel Brewer-Karimi and a three-pointer of her own.
Four more points by Burger and the first points of the night from Torrington All-NVL guard Leah Pergola (10 points) gave the Raiders a 19-16 lead midway through the second, but another three by Tice and a pair of them by Dahn rolled the Falcons to a 25-20 lead at the half.
Torrington closed up its defense in the third quarter.
Dahn and Kelly went inside for nine. Kelly extended the Falcon lead to 34-22 three minutes into the period. Pergola, Amelia Boulli, Burger and Brewer-Karimi fought back to 38-31.
Tice, with her final three of the night, put the Falcon lead back to 10 (4131).
Nevertheless, if St. Paul’s defense worked on Torrington in the first three quarters, the Raiders’ full-court trapping defense almost brought them back in the fourth.
Murelli, Pergola and Burger had Torrington within striking distance at 44-36 with 4:23 left and the Falcon offense bottled up – except for Dahn. Dahn’s third trey of the night put the game out of reach at 47-36, 3:10 left.
Pergola, Brewer-Karimi and Burger scored the rest of the game’s points, but they weren’t enough.
No. 3 St. Paul (16-4), the only regular-season winner over No. 1 Holy Cross (19-1), will play for the tournament championship Wednesday night at Kennedy High School.
The Crusaders beat No. 4 Wolcott 62-48 in Monday’s late semifinal game.