Avon’s Gianna Godbout (12) tries to stop the shot from Simsbury’s Lauren Sabia in Monday’s Central Connecticut Conference game in Avon.
AVON, January 9, 2023 – The Simsbury High girls basketball team plays a challenging schedule as a member of the Central Connecticut Conference with annual games against Southington, Windsor, East Hartford and others.
Trojan head coach Sam Zullo added four games to this year’s schedule against New York State schools, including two games against teams ranked in the New York Sportswriters Association’s top 20 rankings.
Simsbury, who was ranked No. 11 in last week’s GameTimeCT top 10 poll, beat Shaker, N.Y. on Dec. 27 and topped No. 19 Bethlehem Central the following day, 63-58. Simsbury will face No. 13 Schenedehow on Jan. 21 and Averill Park Central on Jan. 22.
“I don’t know what will happen but we will give it our best and be better for it,” he said.
On Monday night, it was host Avon that used Simsbury as a measuring stick.
Simsbury’s Olivia Jarvis had a game-high 19 points with Lauren Sabia scoring 18 as the Trojans used a 19-5 run to seize command of the game and earn a 52-27 victory in a CCC West contest.
Simsbury’s Amanda Gallagher moves through traffic and to the basket in Monday night’s CCC game in Avon.
Avon’s Gianna Godbout hit a three-point shot with 2:30 remaining in the first quarter to give the Falcons a 9-8 lead. But Simsbury scored 25 of the next 30 points in the game to run away with the game.
“We talked about this being a measuring stick game,” Avon High coach Drew Faucher said. “You have to go against a great team to see how you stack up. I thought we competed very well tonight. A few shots didn’t fall.
“We still battled. If that is the kind of fight we will have against one of the better teams in the state then I like our chances against many of the other teams on our schedule,” Faucher said.
Adi Standish led the Falcons with eight points while Sophie Mango adding five points.
Avon had won five of their first seven games, including scoring a season-high 64 points in a win over Hartford Public last week. Standish led the Falcons with 12 points in that win with 12 players scoring in the victory against the Owls.
After giving up 11 points to Avon in the first quarter, Simsbury allowed just three points in the second quarter and 13 points in the second half.
“We lost a great point guard in Katy Perlitz (due to graduation) so we’re figuring ourselves out,” Zullo said. “She was one of our defensive leaders. We’ve been working on playing defense a different way and together. If you look at our last few games, I think we’re really starting to figure this out. It’s really a complete (team) defensive effort.”
Simsbury had multiple steals with Sammy Lombardi and Moira Hughes getting a few steals and pressuring the Falcons.
Simsbury has a pair of road games this week at Windsor on Wednesday night and at Hall on Friday night. Avon resumes play on Tuesday when they host Hall at 6:45 p.m. and on Friday when they host Northwest Catholic at 5:30 p.m.
Simsbury beat the Avon High girls basketball team in the school’s original gym on Monday night.
The game was played in the original Avon High gym. The game was originally scheduled to be played on Dec. 23 but was postponed due to weather. There were already activities scheduled for the main Avon High gym, forcing the move to the older gym.
Simsbury 52, Avon 27
At Avon
Simsbury (52) Lauren Sabia 8-0-18, Sammy Lombardi 0-0-0, Moira Hughes 0-2-2, Olivia Jarvis 7-5-19, Meg Alonzo 0-0-0, Reece Willison 1-0-2, Faye Kaplinski 4-1-9, Amanda Gallagher 0-2-2. Totals 20-10
Avon (27) Sophie Mango 2-0-5, Lindsay Arigoni 1-0-2, Adi Standish 4-0-8, Mya Hall 1-0-2, Gianna Godbout 1-0-3, Haley Chisholm 2-0-4, Lia Bosanac 0-0-0, Mylie Gawitt 0-0-0, Katelyn Cifaldi 0-1-1, Lila Aguilar 1-0-2. Totals 12-1-27
Simsbury (7-1) 15 18 10 9 — 52
Avon (5-3) 11 3 6 7 — 27
Three-point goals: Sabia (S) 2, Mango (A), Godbout (A)
