Canton pulls away from Granby for NCCC quarterfinals victory

Maggie Treacy (23) had 20 points in Canton’s 58-48 NCCC quarterfinal win over Granby on Saturday.

CANTON, Feb. 21 – Things got a little tight for the Canton High girls basketball team in their quarterfinal contest in the NCCC Tournament. But the Warriors stuck together and pulled away from Granby with a 58-48 decision Saturday afternoon. 

Granby cut the lead to one with three minutes remaining in the game but NCCC co-champion Canton outscored the Bears, 13-4 to close out the contest and earn a berth in Tuesday’s semifinals against No. 3 Bolton. 

In other tournament action on Saturday, league co-champion Avon beat No. 8 Ellington, 58-34; Bolton eliminated No. 6 Windsor Locks, 55-46 and No. 5 Enfield upset No. 4 seed Suffield, 38-36. 

Carly Atkinson came off the bench to spark the Warriors (19-2) on both ends of the floor. She may have had two of the biggest plays in the game in the fourth quarter. Granby (13-9) cut the Canton lead to one point, 45-44 with three minutes remaining. But Atkinson got a huge offensive rebound, was fouled and calmly sank both foul shots to increase the Canton lead to three. 

In the final minutes of the game, Emily Briggs and Maggie Treacy were solid on the free throw line, hitting 10-of-12 free throws to lift Canton to the victory. 

Briggs led the way offensively for Canton with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Treacy scored 20 points and played with four fouls for the entire second half. She picked up two fouls in the final minute of the second quarter. With Treacy in foul trouble, head coach Brian Medeiros substituted Treacy frequently, sending in Abbe Skinner to play defense. 

Jacquie Grabowski had a team-high 13 rebounds for Canton along with five points. Canton got off to a good start and led 19-11 midway through the second quarter before Granby surged to end the second quarter with a 13-3 run that cut Canton’s halftime lead to three points. Granby’s Krista Iwanicki scored seven of her team-high 20 points in the second quarter. 

Canton 58, Granby 48
At Canton
Granby (48): Krista Iwanicki 5 9-12 20, Julia Mazzotta 4 5-6 16, Samantha Bates 2 0-2 4, Emily Uhl 2 1-4 5, Simone Shorter 1 1-2 3, Mariah Rocheleau 0-0-0, S. McAndrew 0-0-0. Totals 14 16-26 48
Canton (58): Katie Walker 0 6-8 6, Emily Briggs 6 10-12 23, Jacquie Grabowski 2 1-2 5, Maggie Treacy 4 8-11 20, Gabby Rose 1-0-2, Emma Charron 0-0-0, Abbe Skinner 0-0-0, Leah Eschenbrenner 0-0-0, Carly Atkinson 0 2-2 2, Belle Magna 0-0-0. Totals 13 27-35 58
Canton (19-2)    13  14    8  23 – 58
Granby (13-9)    10  14  11  13 – 48
Three-point goals: Iwanicki (G), Mazzotta (G) 3, Briggs (C), Treacy (C) 4 

2015 NCCC girls basketball tournament
At Higher seeds
Thursday, Feb. 19
First round
No. 7 Granby 69, No. 10 Coventry 42
No. 8 Ellington 54, No. 9 Hartford Classical 45 

Saturday, Feb. 21
Quarterfinals
No. 1 Avon 58, Ellington 34
No. 5 Enfield 38, No. 4 Suffield 36
No. 2 Canton 58, Granby 48
No. 3 Bolton 55, No. 6 Windsor Locks 46 

Tuesday, February 24
Semifinals
Enfield at Avon, 7 p.m.
Bolton at Canton, 7 p.m. 

Thursday, Feb 26
Site TBA
Championship game, 7 p.m.
Consolation game, 5 p.m.