The Conard girls basketball team hosted Southington in West Hartford on Thursday night in the first round of the CCC Tournament.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency

By Paul Palmer. Photos by Paul Palmer and Craig Rosenberg 

If there is a good time to not play your best in the post-season, the first game is probably the place to do it. That is exactly what the Conard Red Wolves girls basketball team found out Thursday.

In a game that they led by as many as 20 points in the third quarter, Conard managed to survive scoring just four points in the final eight minutes for a 45-41 win over Southington. “We got a little worked up in the fourth,” said the game’s leading scorer, Emily Knowles. “We have to stay composed in the fourth because we’re not going to win going forward if we play like that.”

“That” was a fourth quarter that saw the Red Wolves go scoreless for the first 4:34 before Knowles hit a 3. Over the final 3:26, all they managed was a free throw from Callie Cosgrove, as Southington continued to chip away at the deficit they faced.

The Blue Knights weren’t exactly scorching the nets either in that opening 4:34. They managed just nine points before the Knowles basket. For Conard it was a combination of shots not falling, some bad passing, and a bit of over-handling of the ball that almost let the win slip away. “That can’t happen,” said junior guard Courtney McPhee of the team’s play in the fourth. “We will go back to practice and work on it.”

This was the third meeting between the two clubs this year. Conard won both previous games by double digits but Southington did all they could in the second half to avoid the third strike. Early on it looked like Conard would control the game and coast to a win behind their strong passing and stingy defense.

At 4:03 the Red Wolves put on a demonstration of how dangerous they are when they play their kind of game. McPhee had the ball at the top of the key, hit Cosgrove with a pass on the wing and as the defenders shifted, Cosgrove hit a cutting Knowles with a bullet pass under the basket for the score. Two minutes later the lead was down to 1 when Lilly Cooper (17 points) hit an NBA 3, but Conard built it back up to 16-9 after one.

When Cosgrove hit a 3, then faked another, drove to the hoop, and hit a pullup jumper, the lead was 13 for the home side. Conard continued to pour it on with Knowles completing a 3-point play, McPhee rifling a crosscourt pass to Cosgrove who spun the ball in her hands then drained the 3, and it was 35-16 at the break.

That lead would grow to as much as 21 in the third but again Southington would not go away and when Grace Russo hit a 3 with 45 seconds to go it was a 14-point game – but more importantly gave the Blue Knights momentum. In the third, Southington actually outscored Conard 11-7 in the quarter and set the stage for a nail-biter of a fourth quarter.

That is when the Red Wolves got too tight and turned into the team that could not shoot straight. Southington was not faring much better but they did cut the lead to 10 before Knowles scored the first basket of the quarter for Conard. “When we don’t score, we get nervous,” said Knowles, who finished with a game-high 20 points. “But we are always about the next play.”

Coach Laurie Cersosimo has seen this before from her team – too many mental mistakes and letting the game start to get away from them. “We really focus on the next play and not letting one bad play turn into five, “she said. “That’s what they did tonight.”

With :12 to play, Southington hit a long 3 and it was now 44-41 Conard, as the Blue Knight’ outscored the Red Wolves 14-3 to that point. Cosgrove would hit the fourth and final point of the night for Conard from the foul line with 4.3 seconds to play and the Red Wolves escaped with a 45-41 win. “I’m not concerned,” Cersosimo said after the game. “I trust them,” she said of her players. “It is a great opportunity to learn that there are no easy games ahead.”

That’s a sentiment that McPhee and her teammates share as they move on to the next round. “Overall, we are in a good spot and are ready for the tournament. We are excited now,” she said.

Game notes

• Southington’s players wore tie-dyed warmup shirts in honor of Bill Queen. Queen – an assistant coach with the team for three years – died suddenly last month. The shirts read” Be Like Bill” on the front, and each player had “Queen” listed where the players’ name went.
• Next up for Conard is a matchup with Rocky Hill (15-5) at 11 a.m. Saturday at Plainville High School. Conard enters as the No. 1 seed in the CCC Tournament, but still has that time slot. The Red Wolves came into Thursday’s game ranked No. 5 in all classes in the state for girls hoops and No. 4 in Class LL. Rocky Hill is the ninth seed in the CCC Tourney and defeated Bristol Eastern to advance to the quarterfinals.
• If Conard wins on Saturday, the rest of the CCC Tournament games will be played at UHart on Feb. 20 (semifinals) and Feb. 24 (finals).
• The Red Wolves lost 40-37 last year in the CCC final to Simsbury.

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