Milford Mirror

Lauralton turns back Newtown (hoop)

Tuesday, 24 January 2012 14:41

The Lauralton Hall basketball team has a long-range goal of not only playing well in the Class LL state tournament, but the Crusaders would like to claim a state title as well. Right now, coach Amanda Forcucci’s team is destroying opponents en route to the state tourney, which begins in late February.

The Crusaders met up with Newtown High, one of their stronger South-West Conference rivals last week, with both sporting 10-1 records.

Lauralton Hall walked off with a 63-48 win, which not only delighted most of the hometown crowd, but impressed Forcucci.

“I’m starting to get used to this,” said Forcucci, in her first year with the program.

“When I first got here and began running practices, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing at times.

“I kept wondering, ‘How do these kids know each other so well?’ I’ve seen more Magic Johnson-like passes here than I could’ve imagined.”

The victory helped ease some of the pain from last year, when Newtown twice defeated Lauralton — once during the regular season and again in the SWC playoffs.

The Crusaders did avenge those defeats, however, with a win over Newtown in the Class LL state tourney.

“Our team got together before this game and we told each other that we weren’t going to lose to them again,” said junior forward Olivia Levey, whose 20 points and 14 rebounds paced the winners.

“Those losses weren’t acceptable. This has become a very intense rivalry, and that’s good. It makes each and every one of us play up to our potential.”

Levey was one of three Crusader players in double figures.

Michelle DeSantis had 11 points and Nicola Matero added 10.

But the key to the win might very well have been the overall performance turned in by Cassie Gildea, a tall and very athletic player, whose defensive job was to cover Newtown’s Riley Wurtz, the Nighthawks’ top player.

The 5-10 Gildea scored seven points, pulled down 12 rebounds, blocked six shots, and had three steals. And, she stuck to Wurtz like glue, holding the New York University-bound guard to just 10 points.

Bridget Power paced the Nighthawks with 13 points, and got help from Erin Kenning, who scored 12.

“They’re not ranked third in most polls for nothing,” said Newtown coach Jeremy O’Connell. “They made a ton of shots early [the Crusaders were 7-of-13 in the first quarter and 12-of 28 for the half], and we seemed to miss just about every shot we took [the Nighthawks were 9-of-33 in the opening half].

“It’s the first time this year that Riley has seen that kind of defensive pressure.”

Lauralton Hall took a 17-13 first-quarter lead, and opened it up to 31-20 by halftime.

The Crusaders continued to move the ball well into the third quarter, and pushed their lead to 14 at the three-minute mark when Levey’s putback basket made it 41-27.

Another hoop by Levey, on an assist from Carly Fabbri, and a Levey free throw, made it 44-27 with a little over two minutes remaining in the third period.

The Crusaders closed out the quarter on top, 46-34.

Newtown managed to cut Lauralton Hall’s lead to nine twice in the final eight minutes.

“We kept getting stops, but then we couldn’t translate it into points on the other end,” O’Connell said.

Lauralton defeated Weston High, 68-39, on Friday night.

“We’d like to win that state championship,” Levey said. “But as of now, we’re handling this season one possession at a time. Not even one game at a time.

“We have a team with great shooters; good players who’re very unselfish. What we’re trying to do is get better with each game.”

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