Lady Blazers split with Northeast Quad foes

Andrew Towne
Posted 2/10/21

TORRINGTON – The Torrington High School girls’ basketball had mixed results against 3A Northeast Quadrant foes Newcastle and Buffalo over the weekend.

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Lady Blazers split with Northeast Quad foes

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TORRINGTON – The Torrington High School girls’ basketball had mixed results against 3A Northeast Quadrant foes Newcastle and Buffalo over the weekend.

On Friday, the Lady Blazers got off to a slow start against the Newcastle Lady Dogies in a 57-40 loss.

Torrington was without leading scorer Reece Halley, who sprained her ankle late in the win over Cheyenne South last week.

“We started rough. With a new lineup with starting Tannya (Woodruff) and not having the points we are used to out of Reece, we felt off the first quarter,” THS coach Jeff Halley said. “Once they settled in in the second, third and fourth quarters, we got better. We battled them even in the second half, but by then, we were already down 20.”

Early foul trouble also complicated matters for the Lady Blazers, who played with Woodruff and junior Sierra Allen on the bench much of the first half.

“From there, it was trying to dig out of a hole the whole night,” Halley said. “We battled, but it was too big of a hole.”

Junior Mattie Jones led the Lady Blazers with 12 points, while sophomore Marissa Moorehouse added seven points. Woodruff had six points.

The next night, it was a different story for the Lady Blazers in a 54-46 win over the Buffalo Lady Bison.

Torrington raced out to a 6-0 behind strong post play from seniors Michaela Moorehouse and Woodruff. Junior Sierra Allen also got into the act as the Lady Blazer lead reached as many as seven, midway through the first quarter.

“Sierra had a rough day (against Newcastle), but she made up for it tonight. She had a great game. Tannya is really progressing,” Halley said. “It might be a blessing in disguise not having Reece this weekend. The other kids had to step and do some good stuff, and they did.”

Torrington kept Buffalo at bay the entire game.

The Lady Blazers got contributions from senior Caitlyn Flanagan and junior Lauren Orr with 3-pointers in the second quarter.

“Any minutes we can get the starters a break once in a while is good,” Halley said. “Marissa (Moorehouse) is coming back around. She had a rough month of January. It’s going to hopefully pay off in the long run as everyone is getting their confidence back in themselves.”

Torrington continued to pull away, and as the third quarter came to a close, Torrington’s lead reached double digits for the first time in the game.

The Lady Blazer reached as many as 17 with 6:32 remaining in the game following back-to-back buckets by Allen.

However, the visitors weren’t going to go away.

Three minutes later, Torrington’s 44-27 lead had dwindled to 46-42.

“They made a nice adjustment on our trap,” Halley said. “We did not. We panicked. We got excited. Our decision making went away for those two or three minutes.”

In the end, Allen dropped six more points in the bucket over the final two minutes to help the Lady Blazers hold on for an eight-point victory.

“With the expectation with the spot in the fourth, we handle them,” Halley said. “This was a big win for us. Buffalo is a good basketball team. They are going to be battling Newcastle for a trip to state on the north side.”

Allen led Torrington with 21 points and eight rebounds, while Michaela Moorehouse had 10 points and seven rebounds.

The Lady Blazers (7-7) only game of the week is at home against the 3A No. 1-ranked Douglas Bearcats (14-0). Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.