West Hartford’s Hall High School hosted Northwest Catholic, in a win which showcased the talent of the team’s lone senior.

By Paul Palmer

Coach Brittany Huggins has just one senior on her Hall girls varsity basketball team this season. Fortunately for Huggins and the Warriors, that solo senior is Jordan Farrell – who scored half of her team’s total points Tuesday night to pace Hall to a 44-30 final over Northwest Catholic on senior night.

Honored before the game along with team manager Jackie Bonee, Farrell got her team off to a solid start, scoring 4 of Hall’s 11 points in the opening period. “She brings leadership and experience to our young team,” said Hall’s coach of her senior player.

It was Farrell who opened the scoring in the second quarter with a nice reverse layup to push the lead to 6 points. Julia Zydanowicz followed with a basket off her recovery of a loose ball, and then a steal from a Northwest player that she converted into 2 more points to make it a 10-point lead just 1:43 into the second.

Hall built a lead of as many as 14 points before Northwest went on a 6-0 run over a 1:14 span to cut it back to an 8-point game. Hall regained its touch and closed out the half with a 24-14 lead.

Farrell accounted for 13 of Hall’s 24 points in the opening half.

It was a solid effort for the Warriors, who were coming off a physical loss to Windsor the previous night. In that game, Hall was held to 4 points in the second quarter and just could not overcome the deficit.

“I think the loss on [Tuesday] actually helped us because Windsor is so physical. We’re gonna be smaller than almost all the other teams we play this year,” said Huggins.

Northwest opened the scoring in the third, before Hall’s Lydia Poulin put back a rebound of a missed shot by Farrell and later drained a 3 from the corner before Zydanowicz added her own 3-pointer.

Farrell added a put back to make it a 32-16 game with 3:52 to go in the quarter. But the Lions continued to play hard, refusing to give in, and they cut the lead to 6 before Farrell hit a 3-pointer with 45 seconds left. Hall entered the final quarter up 37-28.

For most of the game, Northwest was content to slow the pace of play and try to work the ball inside to 6-foot-2-inch forward Brianna Lebrun, who led all Lions scorers with 11 points.  The fourth quarter was a series of turnovers and missed shots, with both teams going scoreless over a 2-minute span before Poulin converted on the front half of a 1-and-1 with just under 3 minutes to go.

Farrell would score her 21st and 22nd points of the night with a driving lay-up coming out of a timeout. Then with 44 seconds to play, Huggins took Farrell out of the game so the senior could get a well-deserved standing ovation from the gathered parents and family members.

“There’s no better feeling than playing your best, scoring 22 points and getting the win on senior night,” said Hall’s head coach of her player’s effort. Those two points by Farrell were the final points of the game, as Hall took the 44-30 win.

Hall’s Talia Sortman finished with 7 points and Zydanowicz chipped in 6. The Warriors, now 3-2 on the season, will play their third game of the week when they travel to Bloomfield on Friday.

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