- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,129,177
- Reaction score
- 59
UNCASVILLE – Last year, the Coventry girls basketball team won the Class S state title with a group of precocious freshmen and juniors.
This year, the Patriots were moved up two categories to Division III. They had that same group of freshmen, now sophomores, and the same steady seniors.
And they won again, hanging on to beat fourth-seeded Seymour, 54-49, Sunday afternoon for their second straight state championship at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Sophomore Danielle Wheeler led Coventry with 23 points and sophomore Hailey Mayo had 19 rebounds and nine points. Another sophomore, Reese Jeamel, had 14 points for the Patriots (27-2).
“It’s amazing,” Jeamel said. “We’re so much better this year. It was definitely harder but we knew we could do it.”
Mia Cunningham had 19 points and nine rebounds for Seymour (25-3) and Viktoria Michalczyk had 16.
“This group, we connected so well last year, getting bumped up two divisions – I felt like we could come back in and do it again,” said Mayo, who also helped the Coventry volleyball team win a state title in the fall.
Coventry shot out to a 20-7 lead after one quarter and led by 19 points midway through the second quarter. But Seymour threw on a press, flustering the Patriots, who began to turn the ball over. The Wildcats closed out the first half with a 10-0 run to cut Coventry’s lead to 31-22.
Seymour had 20 first half turnovers but only six in the second half. The Wildcats started to inch back into the game and the momentum shifted. With four minutes left in the third, they had cut the lead to 37-30. Jeamel held them off, hitting a pair of free throws, an and-one and hitting another shot with 1:45 left to boost Coventry back to a 44-31 lead.
Wheeler hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Patriots a 49-37 edge heading into the fourth quarter.
“I think it was just staying composed,” Wheeler said. “In the locker room (at halftime), we talked about our composure and getting stops on defense. We were not boxing out. We started focusing on that.
“We were getting turnovers. But I think defense was the biggest thing that helped us keep the lead.”
With 19.8 seconds left in the game, Michalczyk hit one of two free throws to cut the lead to 53-49.
“I told them, ‘This is where champions are built, this is everything we’ve worked for all season,’” Coventry coach Kevin Clancy said. “ ‘Stay composed, get it to Danielle Wheeler, dribble out,’ and they fouled her.”
Wheeler hit one of two. Eight seconds later, Coventry was celebrating for the second straight year.
“It’s amazing,” Wheeler said. “I wanted it for the seniors so bad. They do a lot of the gritty work for our team that goes unnoticed.”
Said Clancy of the seniors: “They stay composed, they’re such leaders. They are always guarding the other team’s best players. They are 5-5, 5-6 and sometimes they’re boxing out girls who are 6-foot.
“They do all of those small things a coach wants, and you couple that with the skill set of the sophomores and their firepower – it makes for a deadly combination.”
Continue reading...
This year, the Patriots were moved up two categories to Division III. They had that same group of freshmen, now sophomores, and the same steady seniors.
And they won again, hanging on to beat fourth-seeded Seymour, 54-49, Sunday afternoon for their second straight state championship at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Sophomore Danielle Wheeler led Coventry with 23 points and sophomore Hailey Mayo had 19 rebounds and nine points. Another sophomore, Reese Jeamel, had 14 points for the Patriots (27-2).
“It’s amazing,” Jeamel said. “We’re so much better this year. It was definitely harder but we knew we could do it.”
Mia Cunningham had 19 points and nine rebounds for Seymour (25-3) and Viktoria Michalczyk had 16.
“This group, we connected so well last year, getting bumped up two divisions – I felt like we could come back in and do it again,” said Mayo, who also helped the Coventry volleyball team win a state title in the fall.
Coventry shot out to a 20-7 lead after one quarter and led by 19 points midway through the second quarter. But Seymour threw on a press, flustering the Patriots, who began to turn the ball over. The Wildcats closed out the first half with a 10-0 run to cut Coventry’s lead to 31-22.
Seymour had 20 first half turnovers but only six in the second half. The Wildcats started to inch back into the game and the momentum shifted. With four minutes left in the third, they had cut the lead to 37-30. Jeamel held them off, hitting a pair of free throws, an and-one and hitting another shot with 1:45 left to boost Coventry back to a 44-31 lead.
Wheeler hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Patriots a 49-37 edge heading into the fourth quarter.
“I think it was just staying composed,” Wheeler said. “In the locker room (at halftime), we talked about our composure and getting stops on defense. We were not boxing out. We started focusing on that.
“We were getting turnovers. But I think defense was the biggest thing that helped us keep the lead.”
With 19.8 seconds left in the game, Michalczyk hit one of two free throws to cut the lead to 53-49.
“I told them, ‘This is where champions are built, this is everything we’ve worked for all season,’” Coventry coach Kevin Clancy said. “ ‘Stay composed, get it to Danielle Wheeler, dribble out,’ and they fouled her.”
Wheeler hit one of two. Eight seconds later, Coventry was celebrating for the second straight year.
“It’s amazing,” Wheeler said. “I wanted it for the seniors so bad. They do a lot of the gritty work for our team that goes unnoticed.”
Said Clancy of the seniors: “They stay composed, they’re such leaders. They are always guarding the other team’s best players. They are 5-5, 5-6 and sometimes they’re boxing out girls who are 6-foot.
“They do all of those small things a coach wants, and you couple that with the skill set of the sophomores and their firepower – it makes for a deadly combination.”
Continue reading...
