The Warriors finish the CCC Tournament as runners-up to defending champion Enfield.

By Marlon Pitter

The Warriors couldn’t stop Mary Baskerville – they could only hope to contain her.

The Enfield senior scored 48 points in the team’s semifinal win over Berlin on Tuesday, and slowing her down would be essential for West Hartford’s Hall High School girls basketball team to earn its first CCC Tournament title.

Baskerville scored 32 points, however, including 18 in the second half, as the Warriors fell 60-49 to the defending champion Eagles in the CCC Tournament championship game on Thursday night at Glastonbury High School.

“Remember [Tuesday] when I said we executed defensively for a full game? We did not do that today,” said Hall head coach Brittany Huggins. “We paid special attention to Baskerville and she still got hers, and so did everybody else.”

Hall kept pace with Baskerville and the Eagles for three quarters, holding a two-point lead to start the fourth quarter, but Enfield managed to pull away when it mattered most.

Baskerville made a layup 19 seconds into the fourth quarter to tie the game at 47. While she did not make the ensuing free throw, the momentum seemed to shift at that point. The Eagles then made back-to-back threes to go on an 8-0 run, leading 53-47 with 4:52 remaining in the contest.

Maddy Mandyck scored Hall’s only points of the fourth quarter – a mid-range jumper to trim the Warriors’ deficit to four, 53-49, with 4:35 left. From there, Baskerville knocked down four free throws in two trips to the line before the Eagles got into the bonus with 1:17 to play and pulled away for good.

Olivia Bonee led Hall with 15 points, all from beyond the arc. Amber Raisner also scored in double figures with 11 points, including three 3-pointers of her own.

After a 5-0 Enfield run to start the game, Raisner made a 3-pointer with 4:51 left in the first quarter to put Hall on the board. Another Raisner three gave the Warriors their first lead of the game, 9-7, with 2:24 remaining.

The two teams opened the second quarter tied at 11, but Baskerville chipped in two second-chance layups to give the Eagles a 15-11 lead with 6:23 remaining in the period.

Hall mustered its largest lead of the game with 3:06 left in the second quarter on Bonee’s second long ball of the game, going up 26-21. The Warriors took advantage of a two-minute stretch where both teams sat their bigs, leading 32-28 at halftime.

Enfield quickly took back the lead early in the third with six straight points from Baskerville to go up 34-32.

Bonee’s fifth 3-pointer of the game tied the game at 41 with 2:38 to play after three third-quarter lead changes. Lexi Gellerman gave Hall its final lead of the game on a 3-pointer with 42 seconds left in the quarter as the Warriors took a 47-45 advantage to end the period.

The Warriors had no qualms shooting from downtown, making 12 3-pointers as a team. As the need for the long ball became apparent in the fourth quarter, however, Enfield tightened up on the perimeter to keep Hall’s shooters from drawing the game closer.

Huggins said rebounding and overall effort played a part in the loss as well.

“We think all but two of their [third-quarter] baskets were second-chance points,” she said. “That’s something that we can control. Period.”

With the loss, Hall’s overall record drops to 20-4 and its 14-game winning streak comes to an end. The Warriors move on to the CIAC Class LL Tournament as on Monday where they will host Manchester in the first round.

Hall defeated Manchester in the regular season 81-49 at home on Jan. 2.

“The next time that I’m having this conversation, our season is over, so let it not be for a lack of effort,” Huggins said. “Let’s say that we got beat by a better team, not that we didn’t give enough effort for 32 minutes.”

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