Greenwich High School senior Abbie Wolf got one heck of a birthday present Monday night during the CIAC class LL quarterfinals.
The Lady Cardinals traveled up to second-seeded Fairfield Warde High School and knocked off the Mustangs 62-46 to advance to the semifinals for the first time in well over two decades.
“I told the girls that all I wanted for my birthday was a state win and take us to the final four,” Wolf said. “That’s where we are and I am ecstatic. One more game until we are playing at Mohegan Sun and that is just unreal to me.”
For Greenwich, the victory was especially sweet because of how the Cards have been inching closer to the semis.
The 2013 season was Greenwich’s first state appearance in long time. They qualified for the class LL tourney as a No. 24 seed. Although they fell to No. 9 seed E.O. Smith High School 44-39 in the opening round, the Lady Cards were on their way.
Back in 2014, Big Red advanced to the second round before falling to No. 4 seeded South Windsor. Last season Big Red made it to the quarterfinals before losing a hard-fought game to top-seeded South Windsor 69-66.
“It absolutely feels great,” Greenwich High head coach Chrys Hernandez said. “We’ve been in this predicament three years in a row and it feels really good to get that monkey off our back and take it to the next game. I am so proud of them.”
Leading the way for Big Red against Fairfield Warde in Monday’s quarterfinal victory was Emily Anderson, who finished with 12 of her 21 points in the first half. She also led Greenwich with 12 rebounds and added three steals.
“We were very unselfish and moved the ball around,” Anderson said. “Every one looked to score and it was good. It feels really good to be in the final four. I am so happy and proud of this team and it was great to get a win on Abbie’s birthday. It’s a big birthday present.”
Not to be outdone was the birthday girl, as Wolf took home 16 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks.
“We took it to them in the first quarter and that’s exactly what we did against Southington,” Wolf said. “And they didn’t come back either. They responded in the second quarter by putting pressure on us, but we kept our poise in the fourth quarter and made our foul shots.”
Jayla Faison also had a standout game, netting 10 points and Kim Kockenmeister rounded out the day with eight points and added a team-high nine steals and eight boards.
“We really came out strong in the beginning and I think that definitely helped us,” Kockenmeister said. “We really deserved this win and I am really happy. No one really expected us to come out this far. Because this was a team from the FCIAC, we knew what they were going to do and we came out strong.”
Just like Big Red did against Southington High School in previous round, Greenwich came out strong in the first half.
After a back-and-forth first quarter that saw Fairfield Warde take a 15-13 lead, Greenwich responded with a run to push its lead to double digits.
With less than a minute to play in the first, Anderson knotted the game at 15 with a bucket over several defenders. Greenwich then took the lead with 22 seconds to play, as Caroline Beneville hit the baseline three-pointer.
Faison got the scoring started in the second quarter when she drove the lane and hit the layup with 7:08 to play in the half. Anderson once again connected on her layup while driving the baseline to make the score 22-15.
Although Warde’s Libby McKenna stopped the bleeding with an offensive rebound and layup, Greenwich kept the attack going under the net. Wolf scored an the easy layup in the paint and also hit the floater from underneath, while Anderson hit the layup along the baseline to make the score 28-17 with less than four minutes to play.
“Abbie and I had a big matchup inside, so we just tried to play our best out there,” Anderson said.
Warde cut the halftime deficit to 28-21 and were within three when Lejla Markovic hit the jumper, but the Lady Cards then pulled away for good.
With 52.6 seconds left in the third, Wolf drilled the layup, was fouled and hit the foul shot to bring the lead back up to six. From there with was all Kockenmeister the rest of the quarter, as she grabbed the steal, was fouled going up and hit both her foul shots. With time winding down in the quarter, her layup off a nice dish from Faison as time expired in the quarter made the score 42-32.
“Offensively we wanted to get the ball inside and do a good job of attacking their gaps,” Hernandez said. “We didn’t do a good job of that in the beginning of the second quarter, but we made that adjustment for the second half. Defensively the girls did a great job.”
From there it was all about foul shooting for the Cardinals. The trio of Wolf, Faison and Anderson combined for six consecutive foul shots and brought the lead up to 48-32 with 6:13 to play in the game.
When it comes to the lost art of the foul shot, Greenwich was lights out. In the second half, the Lady Cards were basically unstoppable from the free throw line, going 21-f0r-25 and starting the game converting its first 11 attempts.
“Games like this, rebounding and free throws were absolutely key,” Hernandez said.
For Wolf and the rest of the Cardinals, making foul shots when it matters most is nothing new. During practice, the team takes time out of its day to work on foul shots. Monday night the hard work paid off.
“We take 20 foul shots every day in practice and if you don’t go 70 percent, which is our goal, we’re on the line,” Wolf said. “When I’m in the gym, I picture myself in these big games at the end of the game because foul shots are the one thing you have control over as a player.”
With the victory, Greenwich, with its back-to-back upset victories awaits the winner of Tuesday night’s third-seeded E.O. Smith vs. No. 11 seed Glastonbury game and will play the game Friday and a site to be determined.
“We came into the season where we knew we lost a lot of key players and people kind of counted us out,” Hernandez said. “Yes, we have Abbie, but people kind of counted us out, especially coming into the state tournament. They didn’t have us picked coming out of the first round, much less to a final four contender. The fact that they have met and exceeded every challenge that has come their way, and have done it was poise, intensity and passion, I couldn’t be more proud.”
