By STEVE BARLOW
The Watertown High girls basketball team knew what job one was when they visited Torrington’s Connie Donahue Gymnasium on Tuesday night with the Naugatuck Valley League’s Iron Division title at stake: Stop Brie Pergola, the Red Raiders’ leading scorer.
Consider job one a job done. The Indians held Pergola to four points and staved off a pesky Torrington team for a 51-47 victory.
Watertown, which finished the regular season 14-6 overall and 8-0 in the division, went the gimmick route on defense, using a diamond-and-one defense that coach Jason Hurdle outlined on the chalkboard, even though his team didn’t have much time to practice it in the past week.
“We used it against them the first game (a 40-36 Watertown win) and against one or two other teams,” said Hurdle. “But before this game, we had not practiced it much because of all the snow days.”
Pergola hit the first basket of the night, but after that she was confounded by the harassing defense of Watertown senior guard Ashley Gugliotti, the “and one” in the diamond-and-one.
“Brie is definitely a great player. We all have great respect for her,” said Gugliotti. “We also knew we had to shut her down tonight. It was definitely a challenge, but I knew I had to do it.”
Not only did Gugliotti shadow Pergola all night, she also led the Indians with 13 points, including a pair of big 3-pointers in the first half.
Watertown led at the break, 27-24.
With under three minutes to go in the third period, Pergola got whistled for her third and fourth fouls within five seconds. A basket by Jordan Forte (10 points) off a rebound gave Watertown a 40-31 lead, but Torrington scored the final five points of the quarter to pull within four.
The Indians’ Taylor Mancinone (12 points) hit a 3-pointer with 3:35 to go in the game for a 49-41 lead. Pergola exited with her fifth personal a minute later, and Mary Zaborowski’s basket put Watertown up, 51-41, with 2:26 left. Torrington didn’t have enough firepower to rally all the way back.
Jordyn Forte had 14 rebounds and Alexis Forte and Lisette Ortiz each had seven for the Indians, who enjoyed a big advantage on the boards.
Alexis Tyrrell led Torrington (14-5, 6-2) with 16 points, hitting four treys, and Alyssa Maraia added 14.
“They killed us on the boards. It’s something we work on, but it just doesn’t get better,” said Torrington coach Mike Fritch, whose team gave up several inches across the front line.
