Sacred Heart girls find balance in win over Naugy

BY STEVE BARLOW
NAUGATUCK — At halftime Tuesday night, the Sacred Heart High girls basketball team was tied with Naugatuck in a rematch of last year’s Naugatuck Valley League finalists, but only two players had scored for the defending conference champions.
And when one of those two, sophomore guard Mikayla Mobley, left for good with a sprained ankle midway through the third period, it didn’t look good for the Hearts.
Surprise. Instead of folding, Sacred Heart pulled away for a 51-33 season-opening victory at Naugatuck High.
Aamya Rivera led the way with 24 points and the Hearts limited the Greyhounds to only 10 points in the second half. Hailey Deitelbaum scored inside to start the final quarter, but that was the last basket of the night for Naugy.
The Hearts went on a 17-0 game-clinching run over six minutes with Rivera scoring eight points and Adalena Francis dropping in all six of her points.
“(Losing Mobley) took a toll, but we came back,” said Rivera, who had 13 of Sacred Heart’s 23 points in the first half. “Our players stepped up their games and we just pulled through.”
“We can’t just rely on two people, but they stepped up and we just followed them,” said Francis. “I knew I needed to step up as a captain.”
Sacred Heart coach Ron Picard said he expected Mobley to play Friday against Watertown.
“I think we showed we have a lot of potential,” said Naugy coach Gail Cheney-Strumpf. “The second half, we just didn’t have any shots fall for us. But I think we do show potential.”