Windham rolls on in Class M girls basketball

Windham High School was disappointed when it fell in the quarterfinal round of the Eastern Connecticut Conference girls basketball tournament.
What made that disappointment even more intolerable was what followed — a long lay-off without any games.
“We had nine days off and it’s not fun hanging around the gym with me for nine days after a tough loss,” Windham coach Ken Valliere said.
Plainfield felt Windham’s pent-up frustrations Tuesday as the fourth-seeded Whippets rolled on in the Class M state tournament with an 81-35 first-round win over the No. 29 Panthers.
“It felt so good to get back out and our team was really up-beat,” guard Ali Risley said. “Coach said we had to come in like any other game and put it away.”Risley, who scored a game-high 20 points, was part of the formula to accomplish that. The sophomore wasted no time in putting down a 3-pointer just 45 seconds into the game, and then followed that up with a fast-break basket off an Amie Toner block.
Plainfield did stop the run ever so briefly when freshman Heather Evans (six points, six rebounds) hit a 3-pointer, but the respite was short.
Toner sank two free throws and, after another Plainfield turnover, came another 3-pointer from Risley to raise Windham’s lead to 10-2 with just 2 1/2 minutes gone in the opening quarter.
“After the last few practices, I thought Ris was going to have a good tournament,” Valliere said. “She seems to be really focused, has been shooting the ball well in practice. We ran three plays right off the bat for her to shoot and she knocked down two out of three. She’s capable of that.”
Risley scored 10 first-quarter points, but she was far from alone. Toner, the lone senior starter for the Whippets, added six and both Carlee Smith and Haley Mather added four as the Whippets built its lead to 27-8 after the first quarter.
Plainfield coach Dave Wilcox did all he could to stop the tide as he just about exhausted his allotment of time-outs through the first eight minutes.
“We have to aspire to be them, but we also have to aspire to beat them,” Wilcox said of Windham. “Them and Bacon, and Stonington and Montville — it’s a different clientele next year.”
That was the kicker to the one-sided loss for the Panthers, who finished the season 9-13. They move up to the ECC Medium Division next season and will have to play the Whippets twice during the regular season.
“We definitely became a team (by) the end, and we all worked together, but this was a hard team,” Plainfield freshman point guard Kim Bouten said. Asked how much her team will have to improve to compete with Windham or Bacon next year, Bouten simply said, “A lot.”
Bouten paced the Panthers with nine points, Denise Vergato added eight while junior Kate Montgomery had seven rebounds.
Danyelle Rodriguez added 13 points for the Whippets (18-5) who left with only one concern. Toner pulled herself from the game in the third quarter with a stiff back. Valliere is hoping she will be ready for Thursday night’s second-round game against Rocky Hill.
“She has done so much in her life in basketball and this is her two weeks,” Valliere said of the senior, who will go on to play at Division-I Sacred Heart. “She should be taking no prisoners out there, laying it all on the line and dominating as best she can.”
Her teammates will have her back, stiff or not, in that pursuit.
“We want to go far especially for Amie,” Risley said. “It’s her last year. We want to do something for her.”