After an early first-round exit from the FCIAC tournament last week, the Lady Cardinals bounced back with an impressive 74-55 win over Avon High School in the first round of the CIAC LL Tournament Saturday.
Behind a dominant performance from senior center Abbie Wolf and her supporting cast of guards in Caroline Benneville, Kim Kockenmeister and Jayla Faison, Greenwich(16-3) outpaced Avon (10-10) to secure their place in the second round of the State basketball tournament.
“We didn’t really know a lot about Avon going into the game,” said GHS head coach Chrys Hernandez. “We knew they had good size in Abbie [Laszewski] and good speed. Our game plan was not to deviate too far from what we’ve done all season. We just wanted to continue with our game plan, stick to our defensive principles, play an up-tempo style of game and get some of our points in transition.”
Wolf led all scorers with 23 points and pulled down 18 rebounds while making seven blocks on the defensive side. Emily Anderson scored 20 points and grabbed five rebounds for the Lady Cardinals in the win.
Senior guards Caroline Benneville added 13 points while Jayla Faison scored nine in her ball handling duties. Kim Kockenmeister led the defensive effort with four steals and pitched in 11 points of her own.
“We always want to be unselfish in our play and today we showcased that,” Hernandez said. “We moved the ball around very well. I was really proud of our girls today. They played composed and forced turnovers. We had a lot of help side defense, which was great.”
For the Falcons, senior center Abigail Laszewski scored a team-high 18 points and senior forward Alexandra Benedict finished with 17 points. Sophomore Taylor Aiello added 15 points in the loss.
“I thought Greenwich played extremely well today,” said Avon head coach Frank Waters. “The Wolf/Laszewski matchup was great. Ultimately it was their penetration and the dish to either Abbie Wolf or Emily Anderson that resulted in easy points for them.”
“I thought the last 35 seconds of the first quarter was the most critical stretch of the game. We never really recovered from that 10-point deficit after the first quarter.”
Down by just four points at the time with possession, the Falcons gave up back-to-back and-one layups to Faison and Kockenmeister to find themselves in a 10-point hole after the first quarter of play.
In the second quarter, the Lady Cardinals kept applying the full-court pressure and Wolf finished the half with 15 points and 10 rebounds, including a handful of blocks and a long-range three-point shot.
Greenwich would finish off Avon with a strong second half and now looks to either Southington or Norwalk in the second round of the State LL Tournament.
The second-round matchup between the 10th seeded Cardinals and either the seventh-seeded Lady Knights or the 26th seeded Bears of FCIAC foe Norwalk will be played on March 3 at the higher seed’s gymnasium.
