Eagles Roll To 55-40 Victory Over Norwalk

The East Catholic girls shot the ball poorly for most of its CIAC Class LL first-round state tournament game Tuesday night in Manchester. The shooting inaccuracy could have been costly except visiting Norwalk, hounded by strong Eagles’ defense in the second half, was even less on target.

East Catholic (16-7) advanced to the second round with a 55-40 victory over the Bears that sets-up a rematch against No. 2 Mercy (21-2) in a second-round game in Middletown on Friday at 5 p.m. Mercy defeated East Catholic 52-49 in overtime on Dec. 30 in the Tigers’ gym. Mercy received a bye in the first round and hasn’t played since losing the SCC championship to Hillhouse-New Haven 50-43 on Feb. 22.

Norwalk, seeded 18th, was 13-for-61 from the floor, for 21.3 percent. East Catholic, No. 15, finished at 22 of 75 shots (29.3 percent). The Eagles were 15 of 59 (25.4 percent) through the first three quarters when they built-up a 36-30 lead. They shot 7-for-16 in the fourth quarter as they finally pulled away from Norwalk (13-9), which wrapped up its season by losing three of its last four games.

“I started getting comfortable when we were getting layups with about three minutes left,” said East Catholic coach Al Sanders. “We weren’t sharp at all.”

East Catholic’s sluggishness carried over slightly in only one other phase of play – foul shooting. The Eagles, who had lost two of their previous three games, went 9 of 20 from the foul line.

Their shooting woes didn’t prevent them from rebounding aggressively and defending with zeal, especially in the second half.

“We were equal in ability, you could see that,” said Norwalk coach Rick Fuller, whose team won the 2000 LL state title. “Where they separated from us was how the finished a heckuva lot better than us at the basket. And they handled the ball better than we did.

“They’re well-rounded and balanced and played hard. They were not sloppy.”

East Catholic’s production showed balance, as three players, among the six who scored, reached double figures. Loren Pachesa and Taryn Roy each led the Eagles with 13 points. Nicole Ferguson, their leading rebounder against Norwalk, added 11 points and Erin Howard, off the bench, and Megan Murphy each scored eight points.

Rottisha Lewis was the Bears’ leading scorer with 16 points. Patti Sciglimpaglia added 11 points for the FCIAC school.

East Catholic missed its first nine shots before Howard put in a 7-footer midway through the first quarter that cut Norwalk’s lead to 6-4. Pachesa scored from underneath with 1:10 left to close out the first-quarter scoring at 6-6.

 The Eagles made 10 of 23 shots in the second quarter to take a 29-20 lead into halftime. East Catholic shot 3 of 20 in the third quarter and watched Norwalk chip away at the lead. The Bears couldn’t get closer than a 32-28 deficit with 3:35 left in the third quarter because they couldn’t solve East Catholic’s defense, and Roy and Ferguson were grabbing most of the rebounds.

“In the first half, we were letting people get to the basket too easily,” Sanders said. “In the second half, we did a better job on the boards and on defense. It was taking us a while to get going. We scored just enough in the third quarter. We made just enough plays to make it comfortable at the end. I stayed calm. The girls rallied around each other.”

Murphy came up with a steal then drove in for a layup in the first 20 seconds of the fourth quarter to give the Eagles a 38-30 lead. Norwalk turned it over on the ensuing possession and Ferguson was fouled and made both free throws and Norwalk was down 40-30 in the first minute of the fourth quarter.

For almost the entire remainder of the quarter, East Catholic led by at least 10 points, only twice allowing Norwalk to come within eight points.

“It was one of those nights where the shots weren’t going to go in,” Fuller said. “You cannot win if you don’t put the ball in the basket, if you cannot make your free throws and layups. You cannot win if you don’t take care of the details and those are the details.”