Home Athletics Athletics News Senior Night - St. Paul girls roll to easy home win
Senior Night - St. Paul girls roll to easy home win PDF Print E-mail

The St. Paul girls basketball team wrapped up its regular season on Wednesday night with an outstanding defensive performance, beating visiting Woodland 56-26 to wrap up an undefeated record in its first season in the Naugatuck Valley League’s Brass division.


When the teams last met, St. Paul (18-2, 12-0 NVL Brass) escaped with a two-point victory, 42-40. But this time the Falcons held the division’s second-place Hawks (13-7, 8-4) to just nine points in the first half, building a 24-9 lead by the break.

St. Paul coach Joe Mone said that although the Falcons hit some key shots early, including four 3-pointers in the first half, “I think the best thing was the way we played defense.”

Part of the team’s goal, he said, was to shut down the Hawks’ top offensive threats in Heather Framski (team-high 12 points) and Katie Alfiere (4 points). The pair had combined for 23 points in the teams’ last meeting.

“I thought our big kids did an absolutely great job of just limiting how many times they touched it,” Mone said. “They really had to work.”

Key in that effort was the 6-foot-1 presence of senior Ashley Sulewski, who had an estimated 8-10 blocks in the game — including a pair of booming rejections in the second quarter that got the crowd roaring and helped contribute to a scoring drought of more than nine minutes for the visitors.

“I think one of the key things was, when she blocked the first two or three, they were really good defensive blocks,” Mone said.

After that, he said, the Hawks appeared “gun shy.”

“They had some shots where it looked like, out of the corner of their eye [they were thinking], ‘Where is she? She’s coming from somewhere,’” he said.

“She’s very athletic. She gets up and down the court. And this is what we look for her to do,” he added.

With her four points, Alfiere was the second-leading scorer on the Woodland team.

“We just locked them up defensively. We just played a very, very good game defensively, and that’s something we’ve been doing all year,” Mone said.

St. Paul had 10 different players score in the game: Chelsea Mone (17 points), Courtney Lobo (8), Amber Litwinko (7), Adele Ruel (6), Sulewski (5), Becca Ferland (4), Emily Camden (3), Sylvia Cavero (2), Nohemi Torres (2) and Missy Zommer (2).

Seniors Cavero, Mone, Ruel, Sulewski, Zommer and Claire Consonni were honored before the game during Senior Night festivities.

St. Paul will play in the NVL Tournament, beginning with the quarterfinal round on Saturday at Holy Cross in Waterbury. The Falcons are expected to play in the first of four games that day, starting at noon.
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