State tournament awaits for girls basketball teams

Win and move on, lose and go home.
That’s the cruel fate that awaits basketball teams once the state tournament gets underway, although that start had to be pushed back a day.
The snowstorm to start the month of March also served to push back the girls state tournament although it’s not as big a deal as it has been in the past. That’s because the girl’s state championship games have been pushed back a week to accommodate the schedule with the Mohegan Sun and there is time built into the schedule now.
The Class LL and Class M games that were scheduled for Monday simply got pushed back a day to tonight with six local teams playing, two against one another.
Fourth-seeded Windham plays at home in a Class M first-round game against No. 29 Plainfield.
“I just hate to play teams in our league because one of us has to be done and it doesn’t give (the ECC) the opportunity to move teams on, that’s the biggest thing,” Windham coach Ken Valliere said.
“We didn’t play them in the regular season, so it is someone different in that sense,” he added. “Hopefully, being laid off for nine days, we can get off on the right track and get some momentum.”
Valliere said to scrape some of the rust off, the Whippets did scrimmage E.O. Smith last Thursday.
“I think myself and the kids would be disappointed if we don’t go deep into the tournament, “ Valliere said. “But we have to take one game at a time and win one game, ugly or not, you have to move on. When we won the state championship four years ago, that’s what we said and this is no different.”
Whomever wins tonight will take on the winner of the Rocky Hill/Wolcott game in a second round contest. A win there produces a quarterfinal against either Morgan, Stonington, New Fairfield or East Hampton while the semifinal could bring the top seed, Bacon Academy.
“I think it looks good, hopefully we’ll have two home games and then it goes neutral,” Valliere said. “If Bacon is the best — we’ve played some very ball against them although they beat us twice — I think it’s wide open in the M.”
Also in the M Division and also in the upper bracket is a team that truly feels out of place. St Bernard coach Mike Nystrom doesn’t feel the rules — which automatically vault a Catholic school up a division or more — favor his team which played more of a Class S schedule for much of the season.
“There’s very few easy games in the Class M tournament whereas if you get lucky in Class S, you can go to the quarters or even the semis and not beat anyone,” Nystrom said.
The Saints drew the No. 8 seed in the tournament, good in some ways, bad in others.
The good is that they have a home game tonight against the 25th seeded Thunderbirds of North Branford.
“I saw them play (Feb. 21) and they’re on the small side,” Nystrom said. “They’re OK, they could beat us, but if we play well, we have a chance — if we shoot good.”
That’s something the Saints didn’t do against Bacon in the ECC semifinals when they lost, 47-27, and that’s the bad news. A win over North Branford means St. Bernard will host either Northwestern Regional or Watertown on Thursday, a win there gives them a likely rematch with the top-seeded Bobcats in the Class M quarterfinals.
Speaking of the Bobcats, they will have the target on their backs being the top-seed.
“That doesn’t really mean anything now,” said Bacon sophomore guard Katie Mahoney. “We have to still keep winning and improving.”
Both Mahoney and her coach and grandfather, Dave Shea, believed that a 60-53 loss to NFA in the ECC Championship game Friday night could only pay dividends come the state tournament.
“This got us ready for the state tournament — we had three games — and if we hadn’t won the first game, we would have had almost a two-week layoff before the states,” Shea said, “so it’s a great way to get ready.”
The Bobcats get a bye tonight and will host the winner of the Suffield-Lewis Mills game on Thursday. Shea was happy for the bye as it will give him a chance to travel to Burlington to check out Thursday’s opponent.
“I’m looking forward to winning on Thursday, it’s one game at a time, I don’t want to look any further than that,” Shea said.
Only one other team has a home game tonight in Class M as No. 14 Montville will host No. 19 Jonathan Law. Stonington, seeded 28th, goes on the road to Morgan and No. 22 New London plays at Hartford Classical.
Fitch is the only local Class LL team in action as the Falcons, seeded 21st, play at No. 12 St. Joseph’s.
The only other local team in LL, Norwich Free Academy, has to consider themselves fortunate. The Wildcats have the No. 1 seed and, in this case, that’s extremely important as the majority of the division’s heavy hitters are on the other side of the bracket. Career Magnet, Lauralton Hall, New Britain, Mercy and Holy Cross are in the lower portion of Class LL and NFA coach Bill Scarlata liked the bracket when he first saw it.
“I did and then I thought it was going to be really good because I thought Wilbur Cross was going to be on that side, but they snuck on our side, they’re a tough team,” Scarlata said. “You never know, I saw Southington play and they have a pretty good point guard and are taller than us; Cheshire beat us three years ago with the same team and they’re huge and I haven’t seen Stamford.”
Scarlata wasn’t happy about one thing, he’s going to have to drive to Westport tonight to watch the Staples/Manchester game.
The Class L and Class S teams have to wait until Wednesday to get back on the floor.
It has been a long wait for East Lyme which lost in the quarterfinals of the ECC tournament back on Feb. 21 and get to host No. 25 Notre Dame- Fairfield Wednesday night.
But for East Lyme to advance, it will have to play the role of giant killer again. The Vikes knocked off top-seed Wethersfield last year in a second-round game, they’re going to have to do the same this year if they win on Wednesday and again on Friday. That means a quarterfinal game with this year’s top seed, Fairfield-Warde.
Waterford goes on the road Wednesday night as the No. 21 seed meets No. 12 Northwest Catholic in West Hartford.
“They’re older, they’re faster, they’re quicker and we’re going to have to slow the game down a lot,” Waterford coach Rob Von Achen said.
Only two Class S teams get to host a game as Putnam is home to Portland on Wednesday and Parish Hill plays Shepaug Valley in Chaplin. Lyman, Windham Tech, Wheeler and Holy Family go on the road.