By David Fierro
Starting fast and finishing with a flurry enabled the St. Luke’s School girls basketball team to overcome FAA rival Greenwich Country Day School in an action-packed game in which both squads had their moments.
This fast-paced, intense, back-and-forth matchup featured standout shot-making from the Storm and Tigers, but visiting St. Luke’s started and finished the game strong, resulting in its fifth victory of the season on Jan. 14.
Senior guard Camdyn Nelson, a Greenwich resident, Olivia White and senior guard Emma Sollenne, also a Greenwich resident, paced the Storm’s offense against the Tigers in this FAA game.
St. Luke’s held a 22-13 lead on Greenwich Country Day following the first quarter and entered halftime with a slim 31-30 advantage. GCDS came back to take the lead in the third quarter and went into the final quarter ahead, 49-47, before the Storm made their spirited run.
“We started off strong and they went on their run, credit to them, but the fourth quarter really did it for us,” Nelson said. “We went on a run, stuck together, we went back to how we started the game and what we really wanted to focus on. It was a good win for us.”
Nelson, who has committed to play Division I basketball at Syracuse University, recently reached the 1,000 career point plateau. Her older sister Mackenzie Nelson plays basketball at Virginia Tech. For Greenwich Country Day School, senior guard Brianna McDermott scored more than 20 points, including several 3-pointers and junior power forward Mia McCauliffe-Grant also scored in double figures.
Greenwich Country Day currently has a record of 1-4 in the FAA and 1-9 overall, though they have lost some close games so far this season. The Tigers are optimistic that they will soon start earning league wins.
“I’m excited, I think we’re peaking at the right time,” said McDermott, who reached the 1,000 career point milestone last season. St. Luke’s has a great team, they have a lot of great players. I think we just ran out of gas at the end, they executed more than we did. But postseason is a different season, so I’m excited.”
The triumph raised St. Luke’s record to 3-0 in the FAA, which they have won numerous seasons in the past. The Storm have an overall mark of 5-5.
“There’s a few games that we could have won, but we’re still coming together,” said Sollenne, who will play basketball at the Division I level at Mercyhurst University. “There’s a lot of new people on the team this year and we’re building our chemistry.”
Sollenne’s older sister Ava Sollenne is on the basketball team at Quinnipiac University. The first quarter was especially strong for the Storm, as they jumped out to a 7-2 lead behind a 3-pointer from Grace Kearney, then built their advantage up to 15-4 on back-to-back layups by Nelson with 3:39 remaining.
Trailing 22-8 late in the opening quarter, GCDS scored the last five points of the first quarter, then scored the first five points of the second quarter. A basket in transition off a pass from McDermott by freshman forward McKenna O’Neill brought the Tigers to with 22-14 and four straight points from McDermott made it 22-18.
Following a free throw by White, McDermott swished a shot from 3-point range, cutting the Storm’s lead to 23-21, extending GCDS’ run to 13-1. In the final minute of the second quarter, McDermott nailed another 3-pointer, bringing the Tigers to within 31-30 at halftime.
“I think we played with good teamwork all together and we didn’t blame our mistakes on each other,” O’Neill said. “That’s what really got us to compete against this type of team.”
Greenwich Country Day took the lead in the third quarter behind stellar shooting from McDermott, O’Neill and McCauliffe-Grant. McDermott’s jumper gave the Tigers a 38-35 lead, then McCauliffe-Grant made a free throw, making it 39-35 in favor of GCDS at the 3:43 mark of the third quarter.
A foul shot and layup by O’Neill matched the Tigers biggest lead of the game at 46-41 with 1:20 to go in the third quarter. A deep 3-pointer by McDermott put GCDS on top, 49-44, late in the third quarter.
“We were staying diligent to what our game plan was,” GCDS coach Elisa Brown said. “They hit a couple of quick shots early and were kind of on fire. I think that we just stayed in the flow and once we got into our own flow, we were able to knock down shots.”
Trailing 49-47after three quarters of play, the Storm went on the game’s decisive run in the final quarter of action. After McCauliffe-Grant scored off an impressive move in the low post, giving GCDS a 51-49 edge, Nelson converted a 3-point shot, putting St. Luke’s back on top, 52-51. McCauliffe-Grant made another basket from inside and Camdyn was true on another 3-pointer, making it 55-53 in favor of St. Luke’s with 5:51 left to play.
“In the first quarter I thought I didn’t really look for my outside shots a lot,” Nelson noted. “In the second I really wanted to focus on that. We had good ball movement – two wide open shots off drive and kicks – credit to my teammates for finding me.”
For the fourth quarter, St. Luke’s outscored Greenwich Country Day, 25-10, to claim this FAA midseason matchup.
“Teamwork and communication definitely helped us get back in the game,” O’Neill said. “In the fourth quarter, we just started making lackadaisical mistakes and were less confident and that’s when they got more confident and took over the game. I thought we could have beaten them and even though we didn’t I think it’s going to better prepare us for our next games.”
The Storm have been used to playing in meaningful regular season and postseason games for a long time and their experience especially surfaced in the fourth quarter.
“It was definitely a game of runs and out of the half we let them come out pretty strong,” Sollenne said. “But I knew we needed to bounce back in the fourth quarter and I think we knew we had that game the whole time, it was just about momentum. It was about making shots, which gave us some shots to pull it out at the end.”
As always, St. Luke’s has high expectations.
“I think we have the right pieces, the right places, the right attitude to go on runs to possibly win FAAs, to win the NEPSAC,” Nelson said. “Our big goal is to win those things, but at the end of the day it’s what we do to prepare for those moments.”
Greenwich Country Day knows it can turn its season around and contend for the FAA Tournament title.
“I think we contend with everyone in our league,” Brown said. “There hasn’t been a big game that has taken us out of it. In the top 1 to 5 in the FAA there isn’t anyone that is unbeatable.”
“We’re missing some people with some injuries, some people are away, so at practice we were trying to figure out what group we’re going to have in,” McDermott noted. “We are proving that we can play with good teams.”
