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Sports blog: Warrior Nation

By JOHN NASH

Villager Sports Editor


RIDGEFIELD -- It's not like the University of Connecticut women's basketball team has to worry about anything.

Nor do the Connecticut Sun, the WNBA team based out of the Mohegan Sun Arena, need to fret.

Anybody playing high school basketball in the state, or for that matter the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference, might be a little concerned about the state of Wilton basketball in a couple of years, however.

After marching through a successful Fairfield County Basketball League seventh-grade season with a 23-3 record -- including a regular season league championship-winning mark of 8-0 -- the league's powers that be decided to move the Warriors up two levels for the postseason.

Instead of worrying about the higher level, though, Wilton embraced the opportunity to once again prove itself.

Three victories later -- including a most-convincing 49-32 victory over a New Milford 8th grade team -- Wilton had a tournament championship to celebrate, as well.

"We played a difficult schedule in February to get them ready," said head coach Vic Cunningham. "We played against some 8th Grade teams, so they knew what they needed to do."

And Wilton did what it's done best all season -- played great defense (7 first-half points for New Milford) and kept the scoring balanced on offense as all eight players who saw the court scored.

Haley English and Anna Pucci (10 rebounds) led the way with nine points each while Erica Meyer had seven points, nine rebounds and eight blocked shots.

Erin Cunningham, Sara Dickinson, and Hannah Maatallah (5 assists) added six points apiece. Cori Cannavino (4 points, 13 rebounds) and Makenna Pearsall (2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal) rounded out the scoring.

Two other players -- Alex Lamantia and Casey Tucker -- were unable to attend the game due to previous commitments.

"We get everybody on the board, so everybody contributes," said Vic Cunningham. "That's been the story all season."

Wilton wasted little time in grabbing the early lead.

English scored and Meyer notched a foul shot to get Wilton off to a 3-2 start.

After New Milford's Emily Lerena (11 points) scored, Wilton answered with baskets by Cunningham and Pucci to make it 7-2.

Again, Lerena scored for New Milford, but Wilton closed out the first quarter with a 12-4 lead thanks to a jumper from the elbow by Cunningham and a conventional 3-point play from English.

Baskets by Meyer and Pearsall opened the second, pushing the Wilton lead to 16-4 and the Warriors never looked back.

A 13-4 third-quarter pushed the Wilton lead as high as 35-13 entering the final eight minutes.

"They just play together so much that they take the court with an inner confidence about them," Vic Cunningham said. "They're not going to be intimidated by anybody."

One thing the Warriors have already learned at their young age is that together they can be far more powerful than just one of them.

"Out on the court together, we become a superstar," said Cannavino.

"I think it's all team-work," added Pucci. "We're all good friends and we work together and we make everybody better. We've come really far and we've gotten a lot better."

So maybe seven years down the road the Huskies and the Sun might be looking over their shoulders.

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