Career Eliminates Cheshire from Class LL Tourney

At the start, Cheshire's plan was to attack inside on offense and deny inside on defense. And it was working early.

The Rams never held the lead in its CIAC Class LL second-round girls basketball tournament game with Career-New Haven, but they kept it close throughout. After a cold shooting first half, Career started to find its inside players for easy baskets and got to the free throw line in the second half as the No. 9 seed Panthers held off No. 25 Cheshire 44-32.

In the first half, Career was up by as much as 17-6 with 4:46 to go, but Cheshire went on a 7-0 run with freshman Missy Bailey knocking down a three from the corner with 59 seconds left to cut Career's lead to 17-13.

Career was 5-for-23 from the field in the first half relying mostly on four three-pointers, three from Nicole Anderson (game-high 13 points) to take a 20-14 halftime lead. The Panthers' inside players, Bria Moore and Jasmine Claxton, were held to a combined six points in the half.

"We missed some chippies early on. I think we needed a quarter just to get in the groove of things," Cheshire head coach Sarah Mik said. "Against a team like this it's hard to battle back, plus get ahead. We took our chances with a zone. I don't think we could have lasted four quarters going man against them. You take your chances, they hit four threes in the first half."

"But I'm so proud of our team. Even to the point we got down by eight, 10, we battled back. We definitely made a game out of it for four quarters."

In the third quarter, Cheshire cut it to 20-18 early but Career started finding Moore (also game-high 13 points) and Claxton (eight points, three steals) and hit 6 of 8 free throws for a 30-20 lead by the quarter's end.

"They came out, made some adjustments. Got some more touches on the inside," Mik said. "They missed some easy shots in the beginning, as did we, then it's about who can convert those and get ahead."

Cheshire senior Julia Strobel, who had just one point in the first half, took charge for Cheshire in the fourth quarter with eight of her team-high 11 points as the Rams fought back from a 12-point deficit to cut it to seven twice, the last at 37-30 with 2:22 left.

"I know somehow she's not going to end like that (with one point)," Mik said. "I know somehow, someway she's going to make things happen. She looked to get more touches. She was more aggressive. She knew she was going to leave it all on the floor tonight."

Career (19-5) put it away on the free throw line, hitting 7 of 11 in the fourth quarter, with Moore's corner three-pointer the backbreaker for a 41-30 lead with 1:20 to go.

Bailey finished with 10 points and two steals and Molly Jalbert had five rebounds and two blocks for the Rams, which end the season 12-12.

"(Playing) Cheshire scared me from the jump," Career head coach Kevin Walton said. "I'm telling you that scared me from the jump. We knew they were going to be prepared. Sarah Mik does a great job. They have some big bodies, good ball players so this team scared me."