Sports
Strong Effort Defines Girls' Basketball Season
Cheshire eliminated in Class LL; Scinto wins long jump at New England Track; Rams' fencing takes state title; Boys' basketball on tap vs. Southington in LL Monday.
The Cheshire girls' basketball team played some of its best defense of the season and received an outstanding rebounding effort from its inside players in its CIAC at Career High School.
The No. 25 seed Rams hung with the ninth-seeded Panthers throughout the matchup although never led. They cut Career's lead to two in the third quarter on Julia Strobel's layup with 4:07 left and came back twice from double-digit deficits in the fourth to get within seven.
But after a cold shooting first half (5-for-23), Career heated up getting its inside game going and made its free throws down the stretch (7 of 11 in the fourth quarter) handing the Rams a season-ending 44-32 defeat.
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"We came in here with a lot of confidence," said Strobel, a senior captain. "In practice we worked on what we had to work on. Our defense was the best it could be. Some of our shots weren't falling, which hurt us. We tried our best."
Strobel finished with a team-high 11 points, eight in the fourth quarter in which she took over on offense for the Rams. Freshman guard Missy Bailey added 10 points, eight in the first half. Bailey's five free throws in the first quarter and a corner three with 59 seconds left in the first half to cut Career's lead to 17-13 kept the Rams close early.
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Junior Molly Jalbert, who earned a starting spot in the post after junior Lauren DeBisschop was injured in the last game of the regular season with a broken nose, had five rebounds and two blocks as the Rams were almost even with the Panthers on the boards for the game, 17-16.
"We've come here in years before and had some big issues with (Career's pressure defense)," Cheshire head coach Sarah Mik said. "I think Missy and Maria (Blois) were composed, they handled themselves. I don't think the turnovers led to that many points necessarily, especially in the first half. (Career) got a lot of the points, not only from the threes but from the line. Our guards did a nice job. And we had to go with three bigs at all times. So then the pressure left just those two."
Career sank four threes in the first half despite being off the mark from the field. Cheshire committed 13 turnovers to Career's 10. The Rams made seven steals, two by Bailey, and the Panthers had 10.
New England Track & Field Championships
Junior Jake Scinto of Cheshire took first place in the long jump at the New England Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Reggie Lewis Center on Friday in Boston. Scinto jumped 22 feet, 6 1/4 inches, below his personal best and school record of 22-9 1/2 that he set
Scinto also finished fourth in the high jump with a leap of 6-5. He previously doubled in the long jump and high jump
Scinto will jump next at the New Balance Indoor Nationals, which are Friday-Sunday at The Armory Track and Field Center in New York.
The Rams' Ashia Wright, the girls' Class LL 55-meter champion, placed third in the event with a school-record 7.26. Eric Zdanowski also ran a personal-best in the boys' 55 hurdles with an 8.08 in a 16th-place finish.
Boys' Hockey
The Rams (13-6-2) lost to Hand-Madison 2-1 in the semifinals of the SCC tournament on Friday night at Bennett Rink in West Haven.
Ryan Powers evened the score, 1-1 at 8:02 of the second period.
The Rams have been seeded No. 2 in the CIAC Division II state tournament and will receive a bye in the first round. Cheshire plays the winner of Tuesday's Hand-Farmington game in a quarterfinal Friday at a site and time to be determined.
On Tuesday, Cheshire finished its regular season schedule with a 4-3 overtime victory over Wethersfield at Trinity College in Hartford. Ryan Powers scored the winner in OT. Matt Dupont, Matt Muzyka and Owen Powers each scored for the Rams.
Boys' Basketball
Cheshire (13-9) will play at Southington (15-7) in the first round of the CIAC Class LL tournament Monday at 7 p.m.
After losing in the second round of the SCC Tournament to Hillhouse on Feb. 26, the Rams will have had a nine-day layoff by Monday's game.
Boys' Swimming
Cheshire finished sixth at the SCC Championships with 546 points this past week. Fairfield Prep won its seventh conference meet in a row with 1,147.5 points.
The Class LL championship meet is March 15 at Wesleyan's Freeman Center at 7:15 p.m. The State Open is March 17 at Yale's Kuphuth Pool at 2:30 p.m.
Fencing
The Cheshire boys' epee team won the state championship in East Lyme Saturday. The girls' foil and boys' foil teams placed fifth in their divisions.
Members of the Rams' epee includes Michael Milici, Chris Minardi, Joe Noel and Jon Rasimas.
The boys' foil consists of Berent LaBrecque, Chris Morruzzi, Ray Noonan and Eric vonFischer.
The girls' foil includes Rachel Beckett, Jamie Franklin, Jessica Poling and Jeana Wunderlich.
Girls' Hockey
Bailey McGinnis scored two goals to help North Haven/Amity/Cheshire/Hamden defeat Wilton 6-3 and earn a semifinal berth in the state tournament.
Jordan Ruocco and Brittany Nuzzolo each scored and had one assist for the co-op (16-7-1).
Skiing
Cheshire sophomore Kelsie Carlette won her fourth consecutive race of the season in 46.46 seconds, including a fastest run of 23.05, at Mount Southington Wednesday. The Rams did not have enough racers to score in the team competition against Weston and Branford.
Sophomore Andrew Brown led the boys team with a 10th-place finish in 46.14 as the Rams (15-7) defeated New Canaan, Hand-Madison and Branford while losing to Weston.
Hometown News
Bryan Dorsey went 3-for-6 with two RBI, three runs scored and a home run in nationally No. 19-ranked Southern Connecticut State's 22-1 victory over Nyack College Saturday.
