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01/14/2017 11:00 PMGirls’ Basketball
The Valley Regional girls’ basketball team raised its record to 5-4 on the season by posting a 56-43 road victory versus Shoreline Conference opponent Morgan on Jan. 10. It was the fourth win for the Warriors in their last six games.
Valley and Morgan were even throughout the contest, but then the Warriors outscored the Huskies 22-8 in the fourth quarter to come away with the victory. Sophomore guard Alexis Finnerty had a superb all-around game by pouring in 14 points to go along with six assists, five rebounds, five steals, and two blocked shots.
All three of the Warriors’ captains played a huge role in the victory. Senior guard Libby Spitzschuh led the Warriors in scoring with 17 points, and she also added six steals, three rebounds, and one assist. Senior forward Francesca Daniels had a solid performance with 12 points, five rebounds, three steals, and one assist. Senior guard Brianna O’Brien chipped in with five points, five rebounds, and five steals for Valley. O’Brien’s biggest contribution was on the defensive end as she held Morgan’s second-leading scorer to two points on the night. Junior forward Paige Atkinson got the nod to start and led the team with six rebounds, five of which were on the offensive glass.
Head Coach Geoff Konstan felt that the Warriors played a decent first half, but said that they didn’t do a great job of boxing out, resulting in Morgan scoring 18 second-chance points in the half. However, Valley started gaining steam when the game sped up in the third quarter, after which the Warriors put together a flawless final frame.
“The third quarter was played evenly at 12 points a piece, but I saw the tide turning because the game started to play at a frantic, high tempo pace. We love up-tempo basketball because fast-break transition offense and full-court pressing defense are our strengths,” Coach Konstan said. “Everything came together perfectly in the fourth quarter and we played our single best quarter of the season. We outscored Morgan 22-8 in the fourth quarter and that was a season-high total for points in a quarter. Our full-court press forced multiple turnovers and, with each one, the momentum swung further in our favor.”
Coach Konstan added that he was pleased to see Valley’s recent work on free throw shooting in practice pay off during the Morgan win. Valley shot 8-of-10 from the line in the victory.
Wrestling
Valley Regional's Ben Falivene posted his second win of the season when he competed at the Griswold Invitational last weekend.
Falivene took a 9-2 loss to Tom Cary of South Kingstown, Rhode Island in the championship quarterfinals, after which he wrestled in the consolation bracket. In the consolation quarterfinals, Falivene won a 5-0 decision over Connor Quinn of Woodstock Academy to advance to the consolation semifinals, where he lost by pin-fall to Johnny Falco of Griswold in the first period.
Gymnastics
For the fourth week in a row, the Warriors hosted a meet at Flip-Flop Gymnastics last week. Valley competed against the Haddam-Killingworth/Hale-Ray/Morgan co-op team and prevailed by the final score of 121.15-86.1.