Wildcat Girls Beat Bloomfield in Class M Tournament Action

A slow start led to a nail-biting finish as the Suffield girls basketball team beat Bloomfield, 51-48, in a first round Class M tournament game.

The Wildcats kept a lead throughout the game after a 3-3 tie in the first three minutes, with their advantage fluctuating between 1 point and 10 points. Suffield (16-5) entered the fourth quarter up 35-28 and appeared to be in control, but a flurry of scoring from both teams and a late surge from Bloomfield (12-9) almost knocked Suffield out in the last seconds.

“It was a close game,” said Suffield Head Coach Jeremiah Brown. “We had plenty of 10-point leads in there. We couldn’t really break it open past the 10-point lead at any point in time that we had it. It definitely was a game of runs.”

Suffield had a 2-point advantage, 47-45, with 60 seconds left on the clock following a 7-point run from Bloomfield. Corrine Williams scored 5 of those points, hitting a 3-pointer (one of three she made on the evening) and two free throws. Corrine and Breeana Williams are the daughters of Suffield Assistant Coach Marcus Williams.

“It was a fight even more than we really wanted it to be because my assistant coach’s daughters play for that team," Brown said. "But [our team was] able to deal with that.”

After Brown called a time out, senior forward Stephanie Guminiak inbounded the ball to junior guard Brianna Bishop, who was quickly fouled and brought Suffield’s lead to 4 points.

But Williams hit another shot from the high rent district to cut the Wildcat lead down to 1 point, 49-48, with about 30 seconds to play.

“All season long, we’ve had a hard time in the fourth quarter maintaining leads and keeping them and not breaking down,” Brown said, noting that the team had the same issue playing Avon in its last game. “We played those 32 minutes. All the other games we lost this season, we didn’t play 32 minutes.”

Senior forward Brenna Lowe was then fouled and responded with a miss and a make to put the score at 50-48 for Suffield.

“Brenna Lowe, she played solid,” Brown said. “She played very well offensively and defensively, grabbing rebounds and even looking for our offense as well.”

The game was in the Lady Hawks’ hands as they had possession of the ball with eight seconds left and center Katrina Matthews was fouled. Thankfully for the Wildcats, Matthews didn’t convert her opportunities. A rebound from Lowe after the second miss from Matthews, followed by a pass to Bishop, who was immediately fouled, sealed the game.

Bishop converted one of her free throws and Bloomfield couldn’t get down the court quickly enough to take a final shot. Suffield left the court alive and active in the Class M tournament.

The game featured effective pressure defense from the Wildcats, who doubled up on stationary Lady Hawks and effectively shut down many of their passing options for much of the game.

There were concentrated, physical efforts from both teams to establish position and gain possession of loose balls. A number of shots from both teams bounced off the rim or rolled out at the last second, despite looking good on the way in.

While a number of Suffield starters logged significant minutes, bench play was important as well.

"Hilary Lattanzio hit a couple key shots for us, she came off the bench and hit a couple key shots that we needed," Brown said.

Lattanzio subbed in for Bishop with 3 minutes left in the third quarter and immediately made her presence felt, putting in a sweet shot for two and following up with another field goal less than two minutes afterward.

Bishop and Lowe led the team with 10 points each. Ashley Gleason and Guminiak were close behind with 9 points each and Jessica Flagg notched 7 points.

“It was an all around team effort, we definitely needed it,” Brown said.

Suffield will play Tolland at Tolland High School on Friday at 7 p.m. in second-round action.