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Coming off its victory over Terryville last Thursday, the St. Paul girls basketball team faces another Berkshire League opponent in Wamogo tonight at 7 in the Class S state tournament quarterfinals at Lewis Mills High School.
With identical 21-3 overall records this season, the teams have had just one common opponent: Terryville, which St. Paul beat by 18 points last week, 53-35, while Wamogo’s average margin of victory was 17.5 points in a pair of victories over the Kangaroos in the regular season, by 54-35 and 47-31 scores.
So all signs point to a close game as No. 3 St. Paul faces the No. 6 seed in Wamogo.
“As you get this far, you’ve got to figure most of the teams are pretty even,” coach Joe Mone said. “It comes down to whoever executes.”
Wamogo is led by a pair of sophomores: 6-foot-1 center Caycee Williams, who has averaged 16.6 points per game over the Warriors’ last five games (10.4 for the season) while adding 1.5 blocks and 8.5 rebounds per game over the course of the season, and guard Kerri Stolle, who is second on the team with 9.4 points per game and leads the squad with 3.7 assists and 2.9 steals per contest.
“I always think if you get this far, you’ve got to have some pretty good players,” Mone said.
St. Paul has its share of talent as well, and the Falcons are a battle-tested, senior-led group, which may be its biggest advantage in the contest.
Mone said by now his players know how to handle almost any situation.
“We’ve been in every kind of ball game,” he said. “We’ve blown teams out, we’ve faced eight- or nine-point deficits and come back at the end, and our three losses have all come down to pretty much the last minute.”
With a trip into Monday’s semifinal round on the line, Mone expects another close contest tonight.
“Usually most of the games [at this time of year] are decided in the last two or three minutes,” he said. “Whoever executes in the last two or three minutes, whoever doesn’t make a mistake and whoever does what they’re supposed to do — you’re probably looking at the team that’s playing next Monday.”
With defense being the key to the Falcons’ success all season, Mone plans no changes in the state quarterfinal.
“I think we’re just going to play defense the way we’ve been playing defense,” he said. “We’re going to do what we’ve been doing defensively. We’re not going to change too much. We’re just going to do what we do. We’re going to play like we’ve been playing.
“I don’t think there’s any magical secret. We’re just going to play defense and I figure whoever plays the better defense and whoever runs their offense the most efficient probably comes out with a win.”
With eight of the top nine seeds in the Class S bracket playing in the quarterfinal round, “There’s no surprises here,” Mone said.
“Now you’ve got to take care of business,” he added. “I like our chances at this point. They work hard, they play hard. ... They’re going to leave it on the floor.”
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Athletics 
