Lauren Rubinstein leads the Lady Panthers against Notre Dame of Fairfield with 13 points and 11 assists. (Ken Morse photo)
By Ken Morse Special to the Middlebury Bee Intelligencer
All season long, the Pomperaug girls basketball team has been looking for a signature win that would set them apart from the rest of a very competitive field in the South West Conference (SWC). That win came in the frantic final seconds of Tuesday’s game as the Panthers escaped with a 42-41 win over Notre Dame of Fairfield.
Pomperaug, 12-4, came in with a 6-2 mark in the Colonial Division, tied for second place with 11-5 Newtown. The Notre Dame Lancers are the leaders in the Patriot Division at 7-1 and 11-5 overall.
With just four games remaining in the regular season, teams are jockeying for position and no one is looking forward to taking on 15-0 New Fairfield, especially in the first two rounds of the SWC tournament.
“This was a signature win for us,” said Pomperaug head coach Joe Fortier. “Notre Dame is in the same boat we are along with Barlow, Newtown, Kolbe and Immaculate. We are trying to get on the other side of the bracket from New Fairfield, and this win was huge in that respect.”
Notre Dame took the lead twice in the opening quarter, holding its final advantage at 9-8 with 2:53 remaining. Pomperaug exploded with a 9-2 run to take a 17-11 lead into the second quarter.
That lead was not challenged until the final three minutes of the game. Lauren Rubinstein led the Panthers with 13 points. She dished out 11 assists to pace the offense, and her two first-quarter 3-pointers helped Pomperaug get out in front.
“I was fortunate enough to hit a couple of big shots in that opening quarter, and it gave us the momentum early,” said Rubinstein. “I think the key to this game was our press. We came away with a lot of steals and just took it to the basket.”
Karli Opalka scored 11 points and pulled down 11 rebounds but ended up getting knocked to the floor on most possessions under the Pomperaug basket. That physical play hampered the Lancers as they quickly got into foul trouble with Taylor Ceballos (7 points, 13 rebounds) spending a majority of the third quarter on the bench.
The Panthers used that opportunity to put some distance between themselves and Notre Dame on the scoreboard, extending a 24-17 halftime lead into a 36-27 advantage heading into the final quarter.
Claudine Legato came on to help shore up the inside defense, and Allison McCormick floated a jumper in the lane midway through the third quarter. Rachel Bonnanzio (6 points, 11 rebounds) hit a drive down on the baseline to open up a 10-point advantage.
Pomperaug took its largest lead of the game when Caly Farina (7 points, 11 steals) hit both ends of a one-and-one at the line to make it a 40-29 game with 6:32 to go. The Panthers were not as successful at the free throw line as they would have liked to be as they hit on just 9 of 25 for the game.
That allowed the Lancers to come storming back. With 3:19 left, Pomperaug called a timeout after Notre Dame closed the gap at 40-39 on a 3-pointer from Brooke McCone. Katy Rafferty came up with a steal and got it out to Rubinstein, and her underhanded scoop shot rippled through the net for a 42-39 advantage.
The Panthers did a good job in the face of pressure to take valuable time off the clock, but with 14 seconds left, Whitney Fulton came up with a steal, and Dayniera Artis threw down a layup to make it a 42-41 game.
Pomperaug missed a free throw with 10 seconds left, and Notre Dame was going down the other end for the winning basket. But the Panthers defense rose to the occasion, creating the 21st Lancers turnover as the clock expired before the shot could get off.
“Our foul shooting is not always on,” said Fortier. “Sometimes our layups don’t go in. But we are not going to change who we are. It may not be pretty, but sometimes we need to grind it out and our defense can pull games out like this.
“A lot of teams try and slow it down against us and make us run our offense. But we were able to get that quick lead and that allowed us to keep dumping it down low and got them in foul trouble.
“We were looking for a signature win. They got us the last couple of times on the road. And we finally got them in a game that we didn’t score that many points. We just want to move on and focus on our next game.”
Pomperaug picked up an important win last Friday after dropping a tough 37-35 overtime game to Barlow last Tuesday. The Panthers rebounded with a convincing 47-30 win over Weston with Opalka leading the charge scoring 21 points and pulling down 20 rebounds.
Bonnanzio had another big game underneath, throwing in 13 points, with Rubinstein having her usual all-around performance with eight points, seven steals, seven rebounds and seven assists.
Pomperaug will be back at it Friday, Feb. 5, in Monroe taking on Masuk. The Lady Panthers will have two tough tests next week against a pair of teams trying to move up in the rankings of the SWC before the tournament. On Tuesday, Kolbe comes to the Panthers Den, and on Friday Pomperaug will host Newtown. Both games will be at 7 p.m.
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