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01/28/2018 11:00 PMGirls’ Basketball
The Valley Regional girls’ basketball team played three recent games and was victorious in all three matchups to puts its record at 7-6 on the season. Valley posted wins against Amistad, Old Saybrook, and Creed in its most recent matchups.
On Jan. 25, the Warriors were on the road to go up against Amistad and grabbed a 61-53 victory. Amistad built a 28-24 lead by halftime, but in the third quarter, Valley’s offense started to click, and the Warriors outscored Amistad 19-8 to stake themselves to a 43-36 lead going into the fourth. The Warriors held their lead and went on to win by eight. Alexis Finnerty had a big game by scoring 24 points to go with six assists, six steals, and six rebounds for Valley. Junior Annie Cooper did a great job of protecting the paint and finished the night with eight boards, two points, two steals, and two assists. Junior Sadie Konstan and freshman Alena Crosby chipped in with eight points each.
Head Coach Geoff Konstan felt that Amistad’s size played a role in the Warriors’ sluggish first half. In the second quarter, Konstan’s squad went with a small-ball lineup to try and outrun the Wolves.
“We really struggled with Amistad’s size in the first half. They run their offense through two big post players, and if they didn’t score on their first attempt, they often got an offensive rebound and scored on the second or even third shot,” Konstan said. “Trailing 25-16 late in the second quarter, we switched to a four-guard lineup and put junior Annie Cooper on the floor to try and shut down Amistad’s bigs. Through Annie’s defense and the four guards using their speed to fast break, we closed out the second quarter on an 8-3 run, and I really felt we had momentum on our side.”
Two days later, the Warriors headed to Old Saybrook, where they defeated the Rams 49-35. Valley held a narrow 10-9 lead after the first quarter, and expanded that lead in each subsequent period to win by 14. Finnerty poured in 23 points, while grabbing nine rebounds and six assists. Senior captain Paige Atkinson added nine points and corralled 11 boards, in addition to contesting shots in the paint throughout the night for the Warriors.
“This was absolutely our best win of the season. It was the first time we played well for a complete game. Every game so far, even the wins, we’ve had some kind of issue,” said Konstan. “[Against Old Saybrook] we played outstanding defense the entire game, and held them to single digits in three of the four quarters. We won every quarter, and moved the ball well all night on offense."
On Jan. 29, the Warriors improved to 7-6 by posting a 40-26 victory at Creed.
Boys’ Indoor Track
Nick Braga took home the gold when he won the 55-meter dash in 6.87 seconds for the Warriors at Shoreline Conference League Meet No. 2 at Floyd Little Athletic Center on Jan. 27.
Josh Donahue took fourth place in shot put with a distance of 37 feet-4.5 inches, and also he tied for fifth place in the high jump by clearing 5 feet-4 inches for Valley Regional. Aiden Walsh earned sixth place in shot put with a throw of 35 feet-10 inches. Josh Arnum took sixth in the 55-meter hurdles by running a time of 9.3 at the meet.
Girls’ Indoor Track
Addie Byars posted a pair of runner-up finishes at last week’s Shoreline Conference League Meet.
Byars notched a second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run with her time of 5:47.18 and was also second in the 3,200-meter run at 12:11.08. Emma King took sixth place in the long jump with a distance of 14 feet-5.25 inches for the Warriors.
Wrestling
Valley Regional wrestler Ben Falivene competed in a pair of meets last week.
On Jan. 24, Falivene was at Cheshire when Morgan faced the Rams. Falivene wrestled Elijah Mulligan and won by pin at the 1:03 of the first round.
Three days later, Falivene competed at the Shoreline Scuffle that was held at Branford High School, entering the tournament at the No. 5 seed in the 220-pound weight class. In his first match, he lost a 12-10 decision to 4th-seeded Justin Fonacier of East Haven. In his second match, Falivene defeated No. 8 seed, Chris Zakorchevnoy of Thomaston, by pin in just 10 seconds. Finally, Falivene lost to No. 2 seed Islam Kuchiyev of West Springfield, Massachusetts by pin in the second round.
Gymnastics
The Warriors had a meet against Hand, Mercy, and Haddam-Killingworth/Hale-Ray/Morgan at Hand High School in Madison on Jan. 25. Valley scored 90.85 points at the meet and took losses against, Hand (132.75), Mercy (132.2), and the Cougars (122.2) at the meet.