Eagles Basketball Takes Flight in Holiday Classic

Wethersfield's #24 Nicole Gwynn looks on as Rocky Hill's #10 Peggy Minga and #13 Olivia Augeri await a free throw attempt. Gwynn is averaging 26 points in two contests vs the Terriers this season

Wethersfield girls’ basketball used efficient perimeter shooting to take an early lead before their opportunistic defense took charge and polished off a 65-35 victory over Rocky Hill in the opening round of the Holiday Classic at WHS last Wednesday night.

It was the second time in a matter of a week that the Eagles defeated the Terriers, also winning 66-56 at Rocky Hill on Dec 21.

Alice Kelly scored a game-high 16 points, including a dozen in the opening quarter when she connected on all four of her shots from beyond the arc.

“Her preseason was tremendous. She had 14 threes in three scrimmages, she was lights out,” Wethersfield head coach Jeff Russell said of the versatile Kelly, “She didn’t have it the first couple of games but then she settled herself in the past two games. Nothing seems too fast, she has confidence and a comfort level within the game. She’s a very calm player and a mismatch problem for other teams.”

Rocky Hill’s all-state guard Nikki Lukens scored the game’s first bucket after putting back her own miss, but the home Eagles rattled off the next 13 points and never looked back.

“We have some kids that have played lots of sports together and they really know the game,” Russell said of his deep and talented roster, “We just want them to stay in the moment. We have a lot of kids this year that can put the ball in the hoop so it’s all about timing and letting the game come to them.”

Nicole Gwynn, who was coming off an impressive 37-point performance in first victory over Rocky Hill, used the first eight minutes to set up her teammates. She then assumed the scoring load over the next two quarters, scoring 10 of her 15 points in the second and third quarters.

Gwynn and Kelly are just two of a handful of prolific scorers that Russell has in his rotation this season.

“We start our practices with three everyday drills. There are three shooting stations and every single one of them is predicated on making the extra pass and finding the open teammate,” the third-year coach said about his offensive approach, “Because of that everybody is ready for that next pass. They’re ready for it because it’s been replicated in practice so many times. In the games it’s about taking what we’ve done in practice and being able to apply it.”

Unselfish offensive play allowed Russell’s team to open up a double-digit lead, but it was the team’s harassing defense that held the Terriers to a season-low 35 points.

The Eagles didn’t allow more than 10 points in any quarter, including holding the Terriers to a mere five points over the minute eight minutes of regulation.

“We play well when we’re ahead because the other team has to speed it up, which is how we want to play,” added Russell, “When we play with the lead the pressure comes down a little bit.”

Zoe Adams and Isabella Samse each had three steals on the perimeter and Jess Driscoll controlled the middle, preventing the Terriers from getting second chance points down low.

Adams used her attacking nature to add nine points on the offensive end.

“We’re sort of a match made in heaven with the way that we want to play and the way that she plays,” Russell said of Adams, who is a team captain and the only senior starter, “Anything you ask her to do she does it. She’ll run through a wall for us. These past two games her assignment was to guard Lukens, who is one of the best scorers I’ve seen in boys or girls basketball, and she fought and battled with her and it made a difference.”

Samse scored seven points and Driscoll added six. Sophomore Gabriella Amoddio chipped in with eight off the bench.

Amoddio is picking up where the sophomore class left off a season ago when Russell had a trio of sophomore starters (Gwynn, Kelly, Samse) on a team advanced all the way to the Class L semifinals.

The three are now juniors and the experience from a season ago is paying dividends. 

“I joked coming into the season because those kids are the old kids now. I was worried at first how they would come into that role, but it hasn’t seemed to affect them. If anything it has brought more out of them. They are very vocal players in practice and in games,” stated Russell, “It’s a different team than I’ve ever coached because they don’t need to be fired up before a game. They’re very business as usual. We don’t have to tell them about fighting for this or fighting for that. Last year our motto was about fighting for each other and this year they do their own thing and they are ready to play the second they get here. They feel ready and confident.”

For Rocky Hill, the loss was the fourth in six games this season.

Lukens was the only player to reach double-figures, scoring 13 including six of the team’s ten points in the third quarter.

“That was the flattest we’ve come out this year.  As a group when we do things together and stick to the game plan we can play well, but tonight that wasn’t the case,” said Rocky Hill head coach Allyson Smith, “We have new kids learning the system and we have returners that are trying to find their way a little bit. We are coming off the break but the expectations are always very high. I’m pretty disappointed with the overall effort and mindset.”

Corrin Stabile scored six, all in the first half, and Aleksa Peterson and Hannah Conneely added five points apiece.

Conneely, a sophomore, provided one of the few highlights of the night for the Terriers when she drained a straight-away three as the first quarter buzzer sounded.

Offensively they never found a consistent rhythm but defense is the name of the game in Rocky Hill and the lack of execution on that end of the court, including allowing 22 points in the opening quarter, was the most disappointing for Smith.

“I’m a defensive-minded coach and that was hard to watch for sure. It’s back to the drawing board. Defense is what I really want us to focus on” said the veteran coach, who is in her sixth season at Rocky Hill, “The defensive end of the floor is not negotiable for me. We had a few kids that played hard and they played smart but we just couldn’t do it for more than a minute or two at a time and Wethersfield made the shots.”

Rocky Hill took all three games from Wethersfield a season ago, including a 50-48 triumph in the CCC tournament. The team came within a few minutes of playing in the Class M championship game, but fell in a heartbreaker in the semifinals.

They started this season winning two of their first three, defeating Enfield and Bloomfield, but the loss to Wethersfield was their third consecutive.

“The other games we had played hard but we just missed a couple plays that we needed,” recalled Smith, “The effort was just not there tonight. This young group has the opportunity to be very good and I believe that, but they need to believe that.”

Smith and her girls have a chance to get back on track with five of their next seven at home, starting with Waterford at RHHS on Sat, Jan 5.

Russell’s squad seems to be hitting on all cylinders, but he would still like to see the team execute their help defense more effectively to force more challenging shots.

“We also need to work on our rebounding. Jess Driscoll does a great job for us, she boxes out everybody but we need everybody else to get into that as well. Jess is sort of the hardhat kid that does all the dirty work and we want to get everybody to have that nose for the ball.”

The Eagles are in the middle of a three-game road trip, which includes a battle with Newington at NHS on Tuesday, Jan 8 at 6:45 p.m.

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