MONROE - Don't worry too much if there are a few more gray hairs on the head of Bill Girard.
MONROE â Donât worry too much if there are a few more gray hairs on the head of Bill Girard.
After all, the Newtown Middle School girlsâ basketball head coach has become quite accustomed to seeing his 2004-05 team take games down to the wire â like it did in the championship game of the Jockey Hollow Tournament last week.
The Lady Lions have suffered a few losses this year by the slimmest of margins so when they dropped a 40-38 decision to Monroe last Friday, all they could do was shake their heads and move on to the next game.
LADY LIONS
Newtown 47, Bethel 35
Monroe 40, Newtown 38
Memorial 45, Newtown 30
Discounting two losses to undefeated Memorial Middle School of Middlebury, the Lady Lions have lost four games by only 12 points (and one of those losses was by seven points). So, close games were nothing new.
But in the championship final of the Jockey Hollow Tournament last week, the Lady Lions had to struggle to make it a close game. They erased a 10-point, third-quarter deficit to bring the game to within two at the buzzer.
Jen Brewer and Nora Lynn Shimko tossed in 11 points apiece and were named to the All-Tournament team. Linda Magliocco had four points while Jenna Legros and Jordyn Good popped in three points apiece.
Adelle Cerreta, Emily Kluga, Rachele Cox and Betsy Vendel applied steady, swarming man-to-man defense to help wear down Monroe in the second half.
Things went a lot smoother in the opening round of the tournament last Thursday. A hard-nosed man-to-man defense keyed a 47-35 win over Bethel as Shimko canned 17 points with Taback tossing in seven, Vendel and Legros notching five apiece, and Brewer and Good contributing four points apiece.
Good and Taback dominated the boards with nine rebounds apiece as Brewer, Cox and Kelley Sullivan grabbed six boards apiece.
On Monday, the Lady Lions fell behind, 30-10, in the first half against Memorial and were in danger of being run right out of the gym.
But then the Lady Lions rebounded with a spirited second-half, out-scoring Memorial 18-17 the rest of the way.
Shimko tossed in 14 points (including a pair of three-pointers) while Legros added eight and Vendel and Magliocco chipped in with four points apiece.
Brewer grabbed 10 rebounds on the afternoon against a much taller Memorial front line as Good, Shimko and Vendel pulled down six rebounds apiece.