MHS Girls Two Steps Shy of Goal

The Manchester High School girls basketball team was looking for a natural progression from this past season, after ending 2009-10 in the CIAC Class LL semifinals. The Indians wanted to play for the championship.

Manchester (22-3) wound up two steps away from its goal when it  68-52 in the quarterfinals on March 10, the Tomahawks’ third victory over the Indians in four meetings in 2010-11.

The coaches and players, proud of all the accomplishments before the state tournament, are more focused on the disappointment of not reaching the finals. All acknowledge that next season appears promising without losing any players to graduation in June. But in the short term, the team is tending to the sting of missing out on the state finals instead of concentrating on the likelihood of grander success in 2011-12.

“We had the toughest time playing against them,” said junior Megan Cardarelli, third in team scoring at 9.2 points per game. “It was just whoever worked harder and had a better game who won. We just had a tough time with fouling in the last game. It was a tough loss.”

The Indians opened a 15-4 lead in the first quarter of the loss to Glastonbury in the Elite Eight. But the game slipped away as Glastonbury, which took the lead for good early in the second half, hit 32 of 39 foul shots for the game.

Manchester beat Glastonbury 58-51 in the Tomahawks’ gym on Jan. 4 to improve to 8-0. Five more wins followed before the Indians, then 13-0, played host to Glastonbury on Jan. 31 and lost 47-43. Both teams had won games in the CCC quarterfinals and semifinals when they met on Feb. 23 for the conference championship. Manchester wasn’t sharp, Glastonbury hit 13 of its first 15 shots and the Tomahawks won 67-53.

Remove Glastonbury from the Manchester schedule, and the Indians went 21-0 on the season. Even with the Tomahawks in the CCC North, Manchester wound up as the division’s regular-season champions with Glastonbury runners-up.

Ashley Perez, who became Manchester’s all-time leading scorer in the CCC semifinal win over Hall-West Hartford, averaged 34.5 points per game against Glastonbury. On the season, the junior guard averaged 24.2 points a game, as well as a team-leading 9.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 4.5 steals per game. She was named All-CCC, as was Miofania Garcia, the Indians’ top shot-blocker at 1.8 per game and second leading scorer (11.3 ppg) and No. 2 rebounder (6.2 rpg). Garcia fouled out in the LL quarterfinals and she missed several weeks with an ankle injury. Her absences did not help the Indians.

“Ashley is just the best player in Connecticut. That is all,” Coach John Reiser said. Perez was a Class LL All-State player last year. She is being recruited by NCAA Division I colleges and is a candidate for Player of The Year honors, although those ordinarily go to seniors.

Manchester was playing as well as any team in the state, then injuries hit and the Indians lost their steam. They never recaptured the momentum they had built up in going 13-0. They thought they had it back once all players were available again after the conference championship game and they had nine days to practice before the state tournament second-round game, a 65-29 win over St. Joseph-Trumbull.

“We were really doing well, then we had the injury to Miofania,” Reiser said. “We never seemed to get back to that level. Sometimes you cannot control everything that happens in a season. You don’t know what will pop-up. Injuries you cannot control.”

After the unbeaten streak ended, and while the Indians were contending with injuries, Manchester had an amazing three-game stretch from Feb. 9-14. The Indians beat East Catholic 73-68 in double overtime, Windsor 72-67 in triple overtime, then East Catholic again 57-54 on a Cardarelli half-court shot at the buzzer that went off the backboard.

The regular season ended two days later – and that magic wasn’t at Manchester’s disposal when it was needed.

Reiser said he expects all returning players to work hard in the off-season. Cardarelli believes more players will work out together, as opposed to individually.

“The goal is to win the championship next year,” Perez said. “We learned that everything as a team has to be focused and it is the chemistry that’s really important. Everyone has to be committed.”

Cardarelli said: “I think we’ll be more dedicated next year and step it up, knowing it’s our last year.”

Manchester also will return juniors Arianna Rivera, Talia Gabriel, Caitlyn Mockler, Jesse Niggerbrugge, who was injured, and sophomores Zanaija Gibson, Trecine Breedlove and Megan Jordan, all of whom contributed in significant ways in 2010-11.