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Girls Basketball Set for NEPSAC Semifinal After Fighting Back Against Cats
St. Luke’s Girls Varsity Basketball staged a dramatic comeback against Cheshire Academy on Wednesday, February 27, to advance to the semifinal of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) Class B tournament.
With just eight minutes remaining in the game, the Storm was trailing Cheshire 34-45 when it managed to chip away at the deficit and book its place in Saturday’s semifinal. The #1 seed closed out a very tight contest 56-52 with two clutch free throws from Caroline Lau ‘22.
St. Luke’s, coming off the back of winning its fourth straight FAA title , started strong. Minutes into the game, the team celebrated Janelle Johnson ‘20 hitting her 1000th career point. The home team led for much of the first half but could never pull away from the talented Cats team. A big three at the end of the first period meant the Storm would go into the interval trailing 29-30.
The #8 seed continued to apply pressure at the start of the second half and, with the Storm offense faltering, opened up a double-digit lead with 8:17 to play.
An upset looked to be in the cards before St. Luke’s turned the game on its head. Some outstanding defensive plays from Riley Page ‘19 and Jada Boggs ‘19 lifted the team’s spirits and a couple of big threes from Lau and Johnson sparked the dramatic comeback in front of a huge home crowd.
With Wednesday’s win, the Storm returns to the final four for the second time in three years and will face Groton School, MA. Tipoff is set for 4:15pm on Saturday, March 2, at St. Luke’s Carey Gymnasium.
Head Coach Matt Ward was impressed with the way his team recovered from being down by 11 points: “We’ve had to come from behind quite a bit lately. It’s honestly aging me a bit, but we are comfortable and have remained confident in these situations. It starts on the defensive end. When we lock in defensively, we are tough to beat. We will need to be locked in for a full 32 minutes on Saturday. Groton is a very, very good team.”
St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 35 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Center for Leadership builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.
