Law captures first league title - CT Insider
MILFORD — Jonathan Law has put good teams on the girls basketball court over the year. Never had it earned a league title, even dating back to its days in the CCIAC. And when they finally did?
“We weren’t going to celebrate on the Lyman Hall court,” Law coach Dan Young said of the 45-30 victory that put its record at 7-0 in the SCC Quinnipiac Division on Feb. 3. “We waited until we got on the bus for the ride home. The players being fired up was an awesome moment to see. I’m so happy that their hard work had paid off.”
The opportunity to make history wasn’t lost on the players.
“They knew before the game,” Young said of his 11-5 team. “We had defeated Branford two games back when they were one game behind us. We knew with wins against Cross and now Lyman Hall the division was ours.”
Young has been at Law nine seasons. His 2019 team went 14-6. It won a pair of Class M games as a 16 seed, including a victory over No. 1 Northwestern. A year earlier, seeded 15th in Class L, it also won a pair of state games after a 14-6 season. Then came a two-year layoff in state play.
Said Young: “We lost Katie Konareski and Maddie Lula and a whole class we expected great things during the pandemic. I’m not sure fanfare is the right word, but those losses took away some expectations. We knew before the season that this group was capable of good things.”
After a 4-1 start, Law lost 3 of 5 then righted the ship with five straight wins to improve to 11-5. In its victories, Law has allowed only two teams to score better than 40 points (41 and 42 points to Cross).
“I’ll say this group, like those groups, work tremendously hard and give everything they’ve got,” Young said. “Players can’t automatically become All-World offensive talents. The one thing they can do every game is set a common goal of being a strong defensive team.”
Every time a team loses a class to graduation there is the question of who will step up in their place.
“It’s been the leadership from our experienced players: Shelby Green, Mariyah Reid, Sabrina Lawless, Jenna Wasserman and Paige Jolley,” Young said. “And it’s growing the roles for Nicolina Salanto, Talia Salanto, Zoe Johnson, Chloe Konareski and our other younger players. It’s taken time. This season has been kinda crazy with practices, games being jammed into a shorter period. Our players took on the roles that we put out for them every year. It is cool to see where we are.”
Green is the point guard. The senior is joined in the backcourt by Wasserman and Jolley. Reid and Lawless are swing forwards. The Salantos, Rascoll and Konareski join the rotation.
“The goal each year was to be the first team to get that banner,” Young said. “The girls were super excited. They enjoyed the fact that they were the first to win one. We play Wilbur Cross, Lyman Hall, Branford and Career in our division. Outside we play Foran, Daniel Hand, Mercy and Hillhouse twice as well. We know we want to finish as strong as we started.”
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source: https://www.ctinsider.com/gametimect/girls-basketball/article/Law-captures-first-league-title-16846330.php
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