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Schools

Hall Girls Basketball Loses to Manchester in CCC Semifinals

Ashley Perez scores 32 points to lead Manchester to a 63-57 victory.

Manchester’s , a CIAC Class LL All-State player last year as a sophomore, produced in a big way Monday night to lead the Indians into the conference finals, scoring a game-high 32 points in a 63-57 victory over at New Britain High School.

With the win, Manchester (21-1) extends its winning streak to eight games, and earns the chance to avenge its only loss of the season when it meets Glastonbury (20-2) in the CCC championship game at 7 p.m. at Farmington High School Wednesday.

Glastonbury defeated East Catholic 53-50 in the first semifinal Monday at New Britain. The Tomahawks beat Manchester 47-43 on Jan. 31 in Manchester to even the season series at one win apiece. Manchester had beaten Glastonbury 58-51 on Jan. 4 in Glastonbury.

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Perez scored 21 points in the second half and assumed control of the tempo – and would switch the momentum back Manchester’s way – seemingly every time Hall (19-3) made a run at the Indians. Perez was 13-for-13 from the foul line, including an 8-for-8 effort in the fourth quarter.

Perez scored off penetration and from pulling up from mid-range and long-range. About the only way she did not score Monday was by dunking.

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“They never tied it,” Manchester coach John Reiser said. “They got it to three, then Ashley started hitting all those foul shots.”

Twice in the first half, Manchester had built 13-point leads only to watch Hall refuse to give in.

Hall, which had won five in a row, cut the deficit to 54-51, with approximately half of the fourth quarter to play. Then Perez made a statement. She connected on an 18-footer and a 15-footer soon after, pushing the Indians’ cushion back to seven points at 58-51.

The Warriors rallied again, knocking the Manchester lead back down to three again at 58-55 with 1:19 to play. Once more, Perez took matters into her hands. She made a pair of free throws with 33 seconds left to edge the Indians lead to 60-55, and would do so again with 11 seconds remaining to make it 62-55.

“Certainly they have in Perez a top-notch player,” Hall coach Jeff Kaplowitz said. “She made great shots. She created things for herself and for her teammates.”

Megan Cardarelli, the only other Indians’ player to reach double figures, added 13 points on three three-pointers. Shannon Griffith led Hall with 18 points. Moira Honyotski added 12 points and Anna Alferi scored 11. Sara Binkhorst, Hall’s leading scorer and twice an All-CCC West selection, was limited to six points.

“We wanted to contain Sara Binkhorst and make the other girls beat us,” Reiser said. “She’s a great player. We really wanted to do that – we had to do that. We knew they had big players and that would be a tough match-up for us.”

Griffith, who was 6-for-6 from the foul line, and Honyotski did their damage underneath. Honyotski scored 10 points in the first half, which ended with Manchester up by 34-27 on a Perez basket in the final six seconds. Griffith got 12 of her points in the second half.

“We never give up. We always believe we can win,” Kaplowitz said. “We really didn’t produce in our offensive sets. We didn’t create shots. Putting their defense on their heels, we never did that.”

“They executed better than we did. They deserved to win.”

Reiser said Manchester gave up more points than it wanted to allow. “We had 12 turnovers at halftime, and almost all of them were off the pass and we couldn’t defend against that. We gave them too many easy baskets,” Reiser said.

The East Catholic-Glastonbury game was tied 28-28 at halftime and 39-39 after three quarters. East Catholic (15-7) got 17 points from Nicole Ferguson and 14 from Megan Murphy. Taryn Roy scored 11 points.

Glastonbury was led by Liza Otto’s 19 points. Courtney Latham added 12 and Catla Manfredi had 10.

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