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02/05/2017 11:00 PMGirls’ Basketball
One week after clinching a berth in both postseason tournaments, the Valley Regional girls’ basketball team was on the court for a pair of matchups last week. The Warriors took a 57-38 loss at Coginchaug on Feb. 2 and dropped a 38-34 decision versus Old Saybrook at home two nights later. Head Coach Geoff Konstan’s squad now stands with a record of 8-6.
Valley brought a six-game win streak into the Coginchaug contest and was looking to avenge a 55-54 loss to the Blue Devils earlier this season. The Warriors started strong and used their full-court press to snag six steals by the midway point of the first quarter. However, Valley wasn’t hitting enough shots and, after committing back-to-back turnovers with about three minutes left in the period, its offense really started to struggle. Coginchaug responded by going on a 22-8 run to take a 28-14 advantage to halftime.
Coach Konstan said his team looked ready to get back at it in the second half. Unfortunately, the Warriors’ defense couldn’t get the stops it needed and they were down 43-27 heading into the final frame. Coginchaug followed by scoring the first six points of the fourth quarter to effectively put the game out of reach.
“It’s fair to say it was our worst game of the season on both ends of the floor. Coginchaug is a very good team, are very well coached, and they’ll make you pay for having a bad night,” said Coach Konstan. “With that said, I’ve watched Coginchaug play three times prior to our game and they have never looked as good as they did against us. I’m sure we made them look good with our poor play and my poor coaching, but a lot of it was Coginchaug just playing an incredible basketball game. I give them all the credit. They were excellent and just ran us off the court.”
Konstan said the biggest positive was that Valley shot 10-of-13 from the free throw line. Overall, sophomore Alexis Finnerty hit double digits for the seventh straight game by netting 12 points to go with six rebounds and three assists. Libby Spitzschuh had seven points with six steals, while fellow senior captain Brianna O’Brien had seven steals, five rebounds, and four points.
The Old Saybrook game was close throughout with neither team pulling away. Valley trailed 10-8 after the first frame, but won the second quarter 12-8 to take a 20-18 lead into halftime. The third quarter saw Valley commit eight turnovers and the Warriors trailed 30-24 going into the final period. Down 31-26 with a few minutes remaining, sophomore Sadie Konstan hit a big three and then senior captain Francesca Daniels made a free throw to pull the Warriors within one at 31-30. The Warriors made four consecutive stops on defense, and the home crowd was rallying behind them, but Valley couldn’t convert those stops into points. Valley never took the lead in the fourth quarter and Old Saybrook’s Marissa Newell went 8-of-10 from the free throw line to ice the game. The Warriors shot 13-of-52 from the field and 6-for-14 at the line in the loss.
“Unfortunately, neither of those are good enough to win when playing a very good and very well-coached team like Old Saybrook,” said Coach Konstan. “I give full credit to Saybrook, though, as they contested shots and never gave us easy looks at the basket.”
Sadie Konstan scored eight points for the Warriors, while Finnerty had seven points, 11 rebounds, five assists, and three steals. Spitzschuh and junior Paige Atkinson both had to leave this game with a injury.
Boys’ Basketball
The Warriors played one game last week and took a 66-49 loss at non-conference opponent Ledayrd on Feb. 3. At 5-9, the warriors need to win three of their last six games to qualify for states.
Valley trailed Ledyard 18-12 after the first quarter and was down 33-23 at halftime. Ledyard outscored the Warriors 19-12 in the third to bring a 17-point advantage into the fourth. Colin Sparaco led Valley by scoring 21 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Jordan Moran and Ernest Jean-Pierre each had nine points. Moran added two steals and Jean-Pierre reeled in seven boards. Ben Weinstein had 14 rebounds for Valley and also scored four points.
Girls’ Indoor Track
Junior Addie Byars recorded a time of 12:30.78 to take fourth place in the 3,200-meter run for the Valley Regional girls’ indoor track squad at the Shoreline Conference Championship. As a team, the Warriors scored 6.5 points and finished in 12th place at the meet, which took place at Floyd Little Athletic Center on Feb. 4.
Senior Maleena Frazier had a nice showing at the Shoreline meet for the Warriors. Frazier scored points in the high jump by tying for sixth with a height of 4 feet-4 inches. She also finished 12th in the 300-meter dash (47.98 seconds) and was 11th in the preliminaries of the 55-meter hurdles (10.13).
Additionally at Shorelines, Claudia Dalterio finished 12th in the long jump (13-10.5), was 18th in the 1,600 (3:37.62), and 48th for the 55-meter dash prelims (9.68). Lacey Rae Hall raced to 13th place in the 600 with a time of 1:57.52. In the shot put, Grace White finished 12th (23 feet-10 inches), while Leanne Webb and Olivia Kollmer tied for 20th by both throwing 22-1. Cameron Johnson finished 15th (6:03.31) in the 1,600 and was followed by Allie Ruel in 27th (7:07.61). Caroline Baldwin finished 23rd in the 1,000 at 3:43.22. In the prelims of the 55, Maya Whitcomb finished 31st (8.78) and Ruel was 42nd (9.17) for Valley.
Boys’ Indoor Track
James Diluca had the highest individual finish, while Alex Fortier placed in the top 10 of two events for the Warriors at last week’s Shoreline Conference Championship. Valley finished in 13th place with seven points.
Diluca, a sophomore, notched a mark of 2:56.74 to take sixth place and score points in the 1,000-meter run for Valley. Senior Fortier added to the point total with his eighth-place finish in the 300-meter dash (40.79 seconds) and he also grabbed 10th place in the shot put by throwing 33 feet-7 inches. Valley’s 4x200 relay scored points by placing sixth with a time of 1:42.89. That quartet featured Cole Ensinger, Alex Fortier, Travis Baldwin, and Jack Liggett.
Also at the conference meet, Travis Baldwin finished 12th in the preliminaries of the 55-meter hurdles in 10.27 seconds. Valley also had four athletes compete in the prelims of the 55-meter dash. Cole Ensinger finished 11th (7.28), Liggett was 20th (7.47), Michael Berardis finished in 24th (7.64), and Nick Klomp placed 27th (7.67). Ensinger also recorded a 13th-place finish in the long jump by reaching 17-3.5. Josh Arnum was 15th in the 1,000 (3:06.75) and 17th for the 1,600 (5:28.59). Aidan Walsh took 18th place in the shot put with a toss of 31-7.
Wrestling
Ben Falivene wrestled against competitors from East Haven in a meet at Wilbur Cross on Feb. 1. First, Falivene faced East Haven’s Justin Fornacier and lost by pin in the first round. He then wrestled an exhibition match against another East Haven grappler and prevailed by pin in the first round. New Haven was also at this meet, but that team doesn’t have anyone in the 220-pound weight class, and so Falivene did not face anyone from New Haven.
Then on Feb. 4, Falivene competed at the Four Corners Dual at Griswold High School. Falivene was pinned by Derby’s Andres Garcia and Sam Beadle of Canton in his first two bouts. After that, he faced a wrestler from Canton for an exhibition match and won by pin in the first round. For the season, Falivene’s varsity record is 8-11.
Gymnastics
Valley Regional hosted a meet at Flip-Flop Gymnastics in Deep River on Feb. 1. The team scored a 118.55 in the meet, defeating Haddam-Killingworth/Morgan/Hale-Ray (94.20) and losing to Mercy (135.5).