WINDSOR LOCKS – The Coventry girls basketball team had never been to the NCCC tournament championship game before Tuesday night. Late in the third quarter, the Patriots held a 10-point lead and looked comfortable.
Until they didn’t. Suffield opened the fourth quarter with a run. Coventry, the tournament’s top-seed, was turning the ball over. The Patriots are a young team and one of their veterans, junior Jianna Foran, fouled out with 5:20 left in the game. Less than two minutes later, Coventry’s other veteran, junior Ava Topliff, also fouled out.
In the first six minutes of the quarter, Coventry scored one point.
“I turned to my assistants at one point, and said, ‘Have we scored this quarter?’ and they said no,” Coventry coach Kevin Clancy said. “I was like, ‘What is going on?’”
On Monday, he had mentioned to the players in the locker room that the two kids he wanted on the floor at the end of a close game were Topliff and Foran. Now they were sitting on the bench and at one point, he had four freshmen out there.
But the freshmen came through. It was little messy with turnovers, a shot clock violation and missed free throws, but they weren’t fazed and kept playing defense and ended up with a 46-40 win over Suffield, Coventry’s first ever NCCC title, at Windsor Locks High School.
“It was crazy,” said Foran, who had six points. “Having to sit was hard. But my team, they stepped up. They did everything they needed to do and I was so proud of them.”
Freshman Danielle Wheeler had 13 points and was named Most Outstanding Player. Two other freshmen, 6-1 center Hailey Mayo, and Reese Jeamel, added 11 and 10 points each for Coventry (20-3). Hazel Qua led Suffield (16-7) with 23 points.
Suffield had beaten Coventry earlier in the month, 61-53.
“We’re like, ‘Next time we play them, we’re going to get them,’” Foran said. “And we were able to.”
Coventry has six freshmen and no seniors. And at the end, it was yet another freshman who had never played in such a high stakes situation who got the call from Clancy. Aliza Sobol came in and played disruptive defense and fired up her teammates when they were flagging.
“That’s my main role,” Sobol said. “I’m not a starter, I’m not first off the bench. My main job is to bring energy, keep momentum going, can’t let anyone get down. If someone gets down, the whole team gets down.”
When Suffield cut the lead to two, 38-36, with 5:20 left, things were not going well for Coventry. But Sobol kept her intensity high.
“She’s full of piss and vinegar,” Clancy said. “I said, ‘Go out there, give them everything you got, on the defensive side, the offensive side’ – boom boom boom boom – she’s doing those small little things that just bring energy to the rest of the team and that was awesome. That was huge.”
Coventry wasn’t scoring much but neither was Suffield. Ava Vieira hit two free throws with 1:10 left to boost Coventry’s lead to 41-36. Sobol hit two more – her only points of the game – and the Patriots led 43-37 with 10 seconds left.
They could exhale.
“It was really intense,” Wheeler said. “It was a little scary at times. We had a few turnovers. But we kept our heads high and stayed strong through those tough moments.”
NCCC championship
at Windsor Locks High School
Coventry 46, Suffield 40
Suffield 12 11 6 11 – 40
Coventry 14 12 12 8 – 46
Suffield: Addison Holmes 1 0 3, Hazel Qua 8 6 23, River Seagrave 3 0 6, Hannah Schulz 0 1 1, Alexandra Eddy 2 3 7. Totals: 14 9 40.
Coventry: Aliza Sobol 0 2 2, Ava Vieira 1 2 4, Reese Jeamel 3 2 10, Jianna Foran 3 0 6, Danielle Wheeler 4 2 13, Hailey Mayo 2 7 11. Totals: 13 15 46.
Records: Suffield, 16-7; Coventry, 20-3.