What started out as a close and potentially hard-fought game between rivals turned into a rout on Feb. 1, as the Jonathan Law girls basketball team defeated Foran High, 58-21, in the Edna Fraser Gym at Foran.
The Eagles’ relentless second-half defensive pressure was way too much for the Lions to handle.
Down 28-17 heading into the third quarter, Foran (5-11) went cold, so cold that the Lions were only able to score four second-half points.
The victory, coupled with a 51-47 home-court win back on Jan. 4, gives the Eagles a sweep in the yearly series.
“We’ve been looking for this to happen,” said Law coach Dan Young. “We do have a young team (the Eagles start four sophomores), but I knew, sooner or later, we were going to have a run like this; that we could put together an almost complete game.”
Led by 18 points from Laura Dulin, 13 from Jessica Centore, nine from Lianne Maynard and another six from Erin Saley, Law used a transition offense to gain control and take the lead at 11-8 on a fast-break basket by Dulin with 47 seconds left in the first quarter.
“We’re one game away from going to the state tournament,” said Saley. “Our defense makes our offense work and tonight our defense was good. We worked well as a team.”
That couldn’t be said for Foran, a team that has been in a tailspin since losing All-State center Taylor Ceballos to injury early in the year.
“When you only score four points in an entire second half, that’s inexcusable,” said Foran coach Scott Nails. “Now, we have to go and play Guilford, a team which we battled real hard against here (losing 37-26 earlier in the season). We still have a little pulse. We haven’t flat-lined yet.”
At 7-9 and 5-1 in the Southern Connecticut Conference’s Hammonasset Division, Law needs one victory to qualify for the postseason.
“We have to go and play North Haven early next week,” Young said. “What we need to do is to keep progressing. As long as I keep seeing that (progress), I’m going to be happy.”
Law entered its second game of the season against Foran riding a five-game losing streak.
The Eagles made 24-of-62 shots from the field and held a slim 46-45 rebounding edge. Their defense forced Foran into 19 turnovers (Law had 13), while the Lions shot 17 percent for the game (9-of-51) including 1-for-25 in the second half.
Centore led Law with 10 rebounds, while Saley grabbed nine and Maynard collected eight.
Usually a close to 16-points per game scorer, Foran guard Teneya McLaughlin was limited to five points. Kyra Blacketter led the Lions with eight points.
McLaughlin, Blacketter and Jenna Zacarelli had six rebounds apiece, and Lucy Weissauer took down five boards for Foran.