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With another two months to go in the regular season, there’s no real cause for concern if the St. Paul girls basketball team still has a bug or two to work out.
But with a very solid performance in a 56-40 victory over new NVL Brass Division rival Ansonia at home on Tuesday night, the Falcons showed they are well on their way to flying deep into March’s postseason schedule.
After trading baskets early, St. Paul (6-1) went on a 16-3 run over the last six minutes of the first quarter to take a 23-11 lead after the opening period. The Falcons never led by less than 10 points the rest of the way.
“I thought we did well offensively,” St. Paul coach Joe Mone said. “They threw multiple zones at us. I thought we handled that pretty well. We got some good shots.”
Since improving upon weaknesses is often more important in the early part of the season than wins and losses, Mone did pick out a few areas in which his team could get better.
“I didn’t think we looked in the middle enough. We had some easy looks in the middle that we kind of missed,” he said.
“Defensively, I thought there were too many mental lapses,” he added. “Way too much reaching, not moving our feet. But that’s stuff we can correct in practice.”
Mone also said the Falcons sent Ansonia to the free throw line too often, as the Chargers sank 15 free throws in the game.
“I think we’re going to have to do a little bit more in practice on our 1-on-1 defense, as well as boxing out,” he said.
But on the positive side, he added that offensively, “We handled their pressure pretty well at the end when they tried to press.”
Although the Falcons’ offense slowed up after the first quarter, the team got steady contributions from its six offensive threats, all of whom totalled four points or more in the first half and seven or more for the game.
Chelsea Mone led the way with 13 points, including a game-high three 3-pointers. Right behind in the point totals were Courtney Lobo (11), Amber Litwinko (10), Adele Ruel (8), Rebecca Ferland (7) and Ashley Sulewski (7).
Ruel also drew the task of guarding Ansonia’s top offensive threat in Kristin Mooney — and while Mooney netted a game-high 15 points, Mone said none of them came easy.
“We knew [Mooney] was going to be able to score, but we wanted to make sure she really had to work extra hard to get her points. I thought we did a decent job making her work,” he said.
“{Ruel has] been doing a very good job on all the bigger forwards that score so far in this league,” Mone added.
Other scorers for Ansonia (4-3) were Becca Berhendt (7 points), Melissa Tirella (7), Catherine DeVellis (6) and Tierney Lawlor (5).
The Falcons are back in action on Saturday, when they travel to Waterbury to take on Crosby at 7 p.m.
St. Paul boys beats Ansonia in nightcap
In the late game of last night’s boys and girls hoop doubleheader, the Falcons rebounded for a victory after trailing by 11 points late in the third quarter, beating Ansonia 70-62.
Even after finishing the third quarter on a 4-0 run, St. Paul still trailed 53-46 heading into the final period. But Byron Jones scored all of his 15 points in the game in the second half and Chris Borea netted eight of his game-high 20 points in the final quarter to spark the Falcons.
Travis Thomas (12 points) hit a 3-point shot with about two and a half minutes to go to break a tie and put St. Paul ahead for good. Jones also had eight rebounds in the game for the Falcons, while Thomas had six steals and five rebounds and Borea had four steals.
Also, David Shaw scored 17 points and had five steals and four assists for St. Paul (2-2).
Ansonia (1-3) was led by Reggie Finney (16 points), Maurice Brown (12) and Sheldon Clark (11).
The Falcon boys also play next on Saturday against Crosby, but St. Paul will host the boys game.
Bristol Press
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Athletics 
