Pomperaug Lady Panther Caly Farina drives to the basket in the game against Brookfield. (Ken Morse photo)
By KEN MORSE Special to the Middlebury Bee-Intelligencer
The Pomperaug girls came into Monday’s Class L first-round contest as the No. 8 seed with a 17-5 record and took on the No. 25 seed 10-10 Brookfield Bobcats. The Lady Panthers took the early lead and never let up on their way to a convincing 53-20 win that advances the team to Friday’s second-round game against the No. 9 seed, 16-4 RHAM.
Lauren Rubinstein led the way with 17 points and eight assists, and her baseline drive and 3-pointer from the top of the key gave Pomperaug a quick 5-0 advantage. Karli Opalka, with 15 points, 17 rebounds and five blocked shots, threw down a put-back to break the only tie of the game for a 7-5 lead with 3:28 left in the opening quarter.
Caly Farina (5 steals, 4 assists) threw down a 3-pointer to extend the Panthers lead, but Brookfield wasn’t backing down. Shannon Cullen (8 points) and Jenna Joshi (7 points) hit 3-point shots for the Bobcats and tried to make a game of it, trailing 12-8 after the first quarter.
“We played them during the regular season, so we knew each other pretty well,” said Pomperaug head coach Joe Fortier. “They came out fired up and we came out flat. They hit some threes, and we made too many turnovers in that opening quarter.”
Whatever was discussed during the brief break in between quarters, the Lady Panthers heard loud and clear. Pomperaug came out with a sense of urgency that produced a 13-0 run.
Katy Rafferty (7 points, 4 assists, 3 steals) came away with a steal, took it down the other end and buried a 3-pointer. That got things started. Megan Todhunter came off the bench and hit a shot down on the baseline off an assist from Rafferty to open a 25-8 advantage.
Brookfield finally got one to go with 2:10 left in the half when Cullen hit a 3-pointer from the corner, but it was too little too late. Claudine Legato came on for the Panthers to shore up the rebounding edge, and she put down a drive in the lane for a 27-13 halftime advantage.
“You got to give credit to some of our sophomores who came off the bench and gave us a little spark,” said Fortier. “We are the type of team where we like to speed up the tempo of the game.
“Once we started to do that, we created a lot of opportunities by going to the boards and getting a lot of offensive rebounds. That opened up our offense, and we were able to extend that run right before the half.”
Rachel Bonnanzio and Opalka controlled the boards in the second half. After outscoring Brookfield 15-5 in the second quarter, the Panthers continued to pull away with a 15-7 edge in the third quarter.
Opalka scored 10 of the 15 points in the third quarter, taking a pass from Leah Rubinstein to open up a 42-20 lead going into the game’s final eight minutes.
Maggie Lee and Allison McCormick led a defensive effort that kept Brookfield scoreless in the fourth quarter. Leah Rubinstein hit a drive down the lane, and McCormick finished the scoring on a pull-up jumper as Pomperaug outscored the Bobcats 11-0 in the last quarter for the 53-20 final.
The Friday, March 4, game against RHAM is a home game that will start at 7 p.m.
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