Looking at the Berkshire League girls basketball standings, there appears to be a clear line of demarcation between the top and the bottom of the league.
BY JASON LEVY
The top four teams – Nonnewaug, Northwestern, Thomaston and Shepaug – won between 11 and 14 games during league play. No. 5 Housatonic, the defending league and tournament champion, also finished about .500 with nine wins.
The bottom half of the league combined for 13 league victories, and three of those teams – Wamogo, Gilbert and Litchfield – round out the rest of the BL tournament beginning today at Northwestern High.
But this is postseason play, which means every game the rest of the way is one-and-done. And in the BL tournament, this is the third time all these teams will meet on the court.
“You always have to take everyone seriously,” said Adam Brutting, the coach of top-seeded Nonnewaug. “Playing a team for a third time, they know you a little bit so they may make some adjustments and do some things that make life a little more difficult. We’re going to go into the game just like we always have every single game this season – which is one game at a time and do our best to take care of business, play some good defense and get up the floor.”
All four of Saturday’s quarterfinals matchups – No. 1 Nonnewaug vs. No. 8 Litchfield, No. 2 Northwestern vs. No. 7 Gilbert, No. 3 Thomaston vs. No. 6 Wamogo and No. 4 Shepaug vs. No. 5 Housatonic, were regular season sweeps by the higher seeds.
Only one of the eight meetings was decided by single-digits when the Spartans beat the Mountaineers, 50-45, on Feb. 4.
Shepaug coach Karen Puskas doesn’t expect anything to be easy in the quarterfinals.
“The first time around was fairly OK for us, the second time around was harder and I think this third time is going to be a dog fight. We’re going to have to step up our game and really play hard. We have to stop (Sydney) Segalla in the middle, that’s our main focus. We have to keep (Tori) Dodge from popping threes outside and keep a good-paced game. Whenever we play them it’s a fast-paced game both ways. We have to be able to keep up and run our own game.”
The lower seeds know they have their work cut out for them, but recognize the opportunity right in front of them. A good 32 minutes on the court and a few bounces of the ball can make all the difference in a winner-take-all game.
“We have played good quarters and we have had bad quarters. But we’ve had quarters where we have been in the game,” Gilbert coach Gerry Hicks said. “I don’t want to say we lose our focus, but we lose something where they get a big lead on us and trying to overcome that takes too much out of us. So I will focus on those quarters where we had really good efforts. I will focus on games where we were close and I think we should have won. The team is young, but there are a lot of positives with this group. We just have to keep building on that.”
This year’s tournament is unique for many of the players as coaches involved with the entire tournament under one roof at Northwestern High. In recent years the quarterfinals were hosted by each of the four top seeds before moving to a neutral site for the semifinals and finals. Some coaches question what that will mean for their respective fans.
“I think you lose a little bit of energy when you don’t play at home,” Puskas said. “So you finished in the top four, what reward do you get? Nothing. We get to travel to Northwestern, and it’s obviously a home game for Northwestern, no matter how you look at it. It’s tough enough with girls games getting people to come to the games. It’s a 45-minute trip from Shepaug. So we’re definitely not getting any of my players’ friends coming to watch them play.”
The BL tournament is also not the official league championship, that is decided by the regular season standings. But that doesn’t mean the players are any less driven to win.
“The postseason just gives us some time to work even harder than we already did,” Nonnewaug senior Monica Untiet said. “We see our expectations now and we’re going to break them again. Heading into the beginning of this season we didn’t think the expectations would be this high, so we just don’t know where the roof is. So watch out. We’re not just looking to win the BL tournament, we’re also looking to win a state championship too.”