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The St. Thomas girls varsity eighth-grade basketball won the New England CYO championships Sunday with a 22-20 victory over St. James of Norwich. The tournament was played in Manchester, N.H., and the championship game was played at Saint Anselm College.
After a first round bye, the Fairfield-based team won two games Saturday to reach the championship game.
St. James entered the final undefeated and jumped out to a 16-13 halftime lead. A change in its defense to a 2-3 zone in the second half proved effective. "Given the size of their front line, we decided to go our 2-3 matchup zone defense in the second half which provided for stronger defensive rebounding support while also preventing them from getting open for easy jump shots," coach Mike Hooper said.
St. Thomas held St. James to two points in the third quarter. The turning point occurred just before the end of the third. With five seconds to go and St. James clinging to a 18-17 lead, St. Thomas' Maggie Salandra stole the ball, took a few dribbles and launched a half-court shot that banked in just as the horn sounded to give St. Thomas a 20-18 lead. This was a lead that St. Thomas would not relinquish.
Both teams played strong defense in the fourth quarter. Haley Congdon of St. Thomas scored on a nifty baseline move with less than four minutes to go, which gave St. Thomas its biggest lead of the game at 22-18. After causing a turnover on the next St. James possession, St. Thomas went into a stall and took about two minutes off the clock. That wore down St. James, which was forced to commit fouls. St. Thomas went cold from the free throw line. St. James scored with less than a minute to go to cut the lead to 22-20 but Tori Stapleton grabbed her sixth steal of the game with six seconds to go to seal the win for St. Thomas. Jackie Brewster led St. Thomas with nine points and Trish Auray had six rebounds.
"This group of girls has played in a number of tight games this year and they thrive under the pressure which prepared them well for this weekend,'' Hooper said.
The St. Thomas girls won junior varsity (sixth-grade) New England CYO championship two years ago.
Team picture: First row, from left: Caroline Ketcher, Kara Duggan, Tori Stapleton, Olivia Defeo and Maggie Salandra. Second row: Jackie Brewster, Patricia Auray, Samantha Dunn, Sophie Benedetti and Haley Congdon. Coaches Mike Hooper, Brian Sacco and Jim Brewster.
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