The Conard girls basketball team hosted Immaculate High School on Saturday in West Hartford.

By Paul Palmer

On a day when Conard girls basketball honored its alumni, two of its current players put on a show and let everyone know the program is doing just fine.

Emily Knowles led all scorers with 29 points and Callie Cosgrove added 24 as the Red Wolves overcame a sluggish first quarter for the 58-33 win. “Our intensity and energy was missing early,” said head coach Laurie Cersosimo. “But then they started playing our game.”

The two teams were tied at 8 after the opening quarter, with Conard having been held scoreless for nearly the first three minutes of play. It was a combination of cold shooting and some good defense by the Mustangs that made it a close game. Things did not get much better for the host team as Immaculate (Danbury) pushed it to a 13-8 lead on Callie Miller’s basket with 5:06 to play.

After that is was pretty much all Conard, especially the tandem of Cosgrove and Knowles. Cosgrove would hit a 3 to tie things up, Knowles would make it 17-13 with a beautiful drive from the corner, around three defenders to hit the short shot.

Cosgrove was almost lights-out all game from 3-point range and delivered a corner 3 to make it a 23-13 Conard lead. At the end of the half, Conard had turned a tied game into a 27-15 lead with  Knowles scoring 14 of those points and Cosgrove adding nine more.

Cosgrove had missed the first six games of the season with a shin injury, and having her back with Knowles, and with guard Courtney McPhee running the assist game – Conard is a dangerous team to play. “The team did great while I was out,” said Cosgrove, a junior. “I’m glad to be back with them.”

Her absence allowed Cersosimo to give younger players valuable in game experience that has translated into confidence for them. “I’m extremely fortunate with this group,” the coach said. “We have security with everyone on this team.”

If there is anything that the Red Wolves need to work on, it’s breaking streaky play where they are unable to score. After missing several shots in a row in the first quarter, they opened the third with four missed shots, and did not score until Knowles hit two free throws. From there on out Conard had the best of the 6-2 and eighth-ranked  Class M Mustangs.

The two-headed scoring monster of Knowles and Cosgrove dominated play like few others could do. Scoring from inside, midrange and three-point range, they made playing defense nearly impossible for Immaculate. Ball movement and constant cutting by off the ball players looked like a well-choreographed dance when the Red Wolves set up in their halfcourt offense.

McPhee directs things from the top, with Nicole Gorman, Caroline Cersosimo, and Kathryn Torla working with Cosgrove and Knowles to create space, roll off screens, and then hit the shot. “I feel I proved to myself that I can score, so I keep taking shots,” said Knowles who can hit from anywhere on the court and is not afraid to crash the boards. In the eyes of her coach, Knowles’ success comes from her hard work. “She doesn’t even know how dangerous she can be.”

Two plays by Cosgrove showcased her team-first attitude. The first happened as she tracked down a long pass that was heading out of bounds under the Conard basket. She grabbed it, kept her balance, and before falling out of bounds, threw a bullet pass to Knowles  on the wing who drilled a two. As time was winding down in the third, Cosgrove was near the top of the key and lost the handle on her dribble. She recovered, did a full spin, and calmly drained a mid-range one-hander as the horn was sounding. “Shooting is about confidence,” she said. “I have put in the hours working on it.”

Once again Cersosimo was able to take her starters out and give other players valuable minutes of playing time with the lead in the fourth. It’s all part of the plan that started before the season began. “My coaches and I wanted to focus on team chemistry and it is fantastic,” the coach said. “We wanted to have that kind of culture here. They all work together so well and always support each other.”

It is all the more amazing when you realize that Torla is the only senior on the team and McPhee, Knowles ,and Cosgrove are just juniors – but play beyond their years. They will get a big challenge on Tuesday when they host E.O. Smith in a rematch of last season’s CCC semifinal. Conard beat Smith in the semifinals of the CCC Tournament before falling to Simsbury in the title game by three. E.O. Smith went on to win the Class L title last year, while the Red Wolves fell in the Class LL quarterfinals to eventual runner-up Fairfield Ludlowe.

Conard will enter Tuesday’s matchup ranked third in LL behind unbeaten Sacred Heart and St. Joseph. E.O. Smith, playing in LL this year, is 8-3 with two of the losses coming to unbeaten Simsbury and Sacred Heart.

In addition to the  Smith game, there are also two major milestones on the horizon for a pair of Conard players. Knowles is just 37 points shy of 1,000 in her high school career, and Cosgrove needs 64 points for 1,000.

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