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Sports

Hall's Binkhorst Presents a Difficult Equation

Girls basketball opponents have been unable to solve the McDonald's All-America candidate.

Karl Herbert, the girls basketball coach, said his players were told in practice, prepped, and told again in the visiting locker room. He tried to make sure his instructions — his warning, really — didn't get old.

Whatever happens, Herbert said, don’t lose sight of Sara Binkhorst.

“But we didn’t do that,” Herbert said. “She’s a kid who as a coach you can count on.”

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Herbert doesn’t have that kind of player, not yet, anyway.

But does.

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Subtract the 22 points Binkhorst scored against a young and seemingly rattled Northwest Catholic, and Friday’s victory at Hall is still a stroll. The 5-foot-8 senior guard and McDonald’s All-America candidate guided Hall (13-1, 8-0 CCC West) to its 11th win in a row, a completely surprising and thorough 67-28 rout.

“This is what you get with [Binkhorst] every single night,” Hall coach Jeffrey Kaplowitz said. “She either scores and takes the game over, or she just takes the game over with her intelligence and distribution of the basketball.

“She is a very intelligent basketball player who makes everyone else on the floor better. You saw it tonight.”

NWC saw way too much.

Binkhorst sank a pair of three-pointers in the first quarter. She fed a pass to Allyson Swaby for a fastbreak basket that opened a 22-8 lead less than two minutes into the second quarter. Hayley Mullins' layup made it 31-11 with 3:02 before halftiime.

"What are you going to do," Herbert said. "I told them [at halftime] I'm not going to yell at you. I need you to listen to me when I'm not yelling."

Binkhorst took a couple of hard charges for the team. She got up and made another pass, another play.

“We talked before the game about always knowing where she is,” Herbert said. “It was a little tough to understand why she got those open looks because we talked about that in pregame, we talked about it [in practice], and we talked about it just before we started to play – that no matter what kind of defense we’re in, we have to always know where she is. That’s where the adversity started for us.”

On Dec. 20 in the first game between Hall and NWC, Binkhorst scored 18 of her 34 points in the fourth quarter as Hall rallied for a 52-51 victory, starting the win streak.

“[The players] are twice the team they were the first time we played Northwest Catholic,” Kaplowitz said. “The girls have dedicated themselves to getting better every single game. This is a great bunch of kids. Their team defense is just absolutely suffocating.”

No one gave NWC a breather. Swaby, an ultra-quick freshman, had 10 points. Mullins, Anna Alferi and Moira Honyotski scored eight each. Ariana Nestler and Shannon Griffith controlled rebounds and dominated underneath, keeping NWC off-balance.

“In the first half we were 3-for-17 for layups,” Herbert said. “Layups, shots inside the paint, 3-for-17.”

Binkhorst is headed to Bowdoin in the fall and so far is going out in style. Hall hopes to make a run in the CCC tournament and a maybe put a dent in Class LL after exiting last season in the first round.

“I’ve seen Sara for the last four years. She’s a heady player,” Herbert said. “She works all the time and she’s talented. Some kids just work hard and that’s how they get by. Sara works hard, and she’s talented.”

Hall’s only loss was 52-44 to Windsor Dec. 14. Binkhorst was in foul trouble early.

The only really close call during the win streak was a 49-43 overtime victory against Southington Jan. 22.

“Everybody seems to step up when we need it,” Kaplowitz said.

A rare blowout for NWC

NWC starts one senior, Antonina Feola. Jacqui Denver is a sophomore point guard. Sophomore center Alyssa Reaves, who had 14 points in the first game against Hall, led NWC with seven points.

“We’re such a young team, they’re not used to adversity,” Herbert said. “I won’t say [Hall] wanted it more than we did but they sure played like they did. They outworked us. But I’ll never walk away and say they’re 30 points better than us.”

NWC (8-6, 5-3 CCC West), which in recent seasons has been on the winning end of lopsided games, had won six of seven before running into Hall’s buzz saw.

“After this loss, you can go two ways,” Herbert said. “This loss can be how you finish out your season or this could [anger you] enough that you know you’re not working hard enough and we can come out and do something about it. We have the talent to do something about it. Now, whether we have the resiliency yet, or the poise yet, or the experience yet, I don’t know that.” … The NWC boys (13-0, 8-0 CCC West) defeated Hall 78-58 Friday, the 432nd victory in coach John Mirabello’s 24 seasons. After NWC’s Johnson Gym is renovated in the near future, the court reportedly will be named in Mirabello’s honor. ... The -Hall girls game that was snowed out Jan. 21 is scheduled Monday at 7 p.m.

Diliberto leads St. Joseph women

Freshman Devin Diliberto scored 15 of her game-high 18 points in the first seven minutes and freshman Adele Ruel had a career-high 15 points and seven rebounds as St. Joseph defeated Lasell 72-46 Saturday in a GNAC game at the O'Connell Center.

After losing its first two games after the holiday break, St. Joseph (12-5, 3-3 GNAC) has won three in a row and five of its last six, including three league victories.

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