St. Bernard takes over first in ECC Small

PUTNAM — Ashley Walenta had it right — unfortunately.
The St. Bernard junior said it was a “sad” event that not only spurred on her Saints teammates, but also served to create some problems that the Putnam girls basketball team just could not overcome Friday night.
An injury to Putnam point guard Kelsey Rybacki in the final 30 seconds of the first half gave the Clippers a need to regroup, and St. Bernard took advantage, using it to hold off Putnam, 38-31. The win pushed the Saints ahead of the Clippers and into first place in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Small Division.
“I hate to say it, but when Rybacki went down — it was sad — but that gave us a little intensity and the ability to double-team (Katelyn) Tarr,” said Walenta, who finished with 16 points. “That helped us out a lot and brought up our intensity.”
The game was tied at 12 with 30 seconds to play in the first half when Rybacki took a pass at the top of the key and drove the right side of the lane, only to collide with a St. Bernard player as she hit a lay-up. But as the point guard fell to the floor, her right knee twisted and the hard landing didn’t help. She never returned.
“We’re hoping it’s just a bruise and that she will be able to heal up and play,” Putnam coach Willie Bousquet said. “They did some tests on her and they didn’t think there was any ligament damage. Hopefully, we can get a knee brace on her and she can play.”
What made it even more painful came at the buzzer when Catherine LeBlanc (10 points) sank a 3-pointer to give St. Bernard a lead it would never relinquish, 15-14.
The Saints (10-5, 6-1 ECC Small) picked up where they left off in the second half when Jill Kowalski hit her only basket of the night — a jumper from outside — and Casey Brigham followed with a 3-pointer to make it 20-14.
To that point, Walenta had scored all of four first-half points and had made just 1-of-10 from the floor.
“I was searching for it,” Walenta said. “My teammates were really encouraging. Catherine kept telling me, ‘Shoot, shoot, you’re going to make them,’ and Coach (Mike Nystrom) said the same thing. He just wanted me to take a few steps in.”
Walenta followed that advice and after hitting one of two free throws with 6:08 left in the third quarter, went on a personal tear. She put in her next four shots, one from beyond the arc, to help St. Bernard build a 30-23 lead.
“The injury changed (the game) — she’s a good player for Willie — but the difference was that we started to make some shots,” Nystrom said.
Rybacki’s injury allowed the Saints to come out of their triangle-and-two defense they were playing on her and Tarr, and switch to a diamond-and-one with the focal point being Tarr. It allowed them to cover the perimeter after Ariel Pelletier had scored on a pair of outside shots in the third quarter.
“We could still double out of the diamond-and-one, but it gave us that extra person on the perimeter and it kept Emma (Sternloff) underneath,” Nystrom said. “It’s what we should have done from the start.”
Tarr, the No. 4 leading scorer in the area, finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds for the Clippers (10-5, 6-2).