THS girls get weekend sweep

Andrew Towne
Posted 2/20/19

TORRINGTON – The Torrington High School girls’ basketball team picked up a weekend sweep over Wheatland and Burns.

The wins snapped a five-game losing streak, dating back to Jan. 22.

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

THS girls get weekend sweep

Posted

TORRINGTON – The Torrington High School girls’ basketball team picked up a weekend sweep over Wheatland and Burns.

The wins snapped a five-game losing streak, dating back to Jan. 22.

“We finally started playing how I thought we were capable all along,” THS coach Jeff Halley said. “We still had our moments, but we had a lot of really good moments. They are starting to believe that we can be pretty good. We are starting to play well together, and it’s a good confidence builder.”

On Friday, it took both teams nearly three minutes into the game to knock down the first field goal in a 55-47 win by the Lady Blazers.

“We were down in the dumps after those last couple losses and we let a couple get away early,” Halley said. “These were two games we needed to win against teams we need to beat to get to state. I feel like we made a pretty good statement, not only to ourselves but maybe them that we aren’t bad.”

Wheatland led the first six minutes of the game until back-to-back buckets by Torrington junior Sam Hill to put the visitors on top 6-5 at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the ballgame quickly unraveled for the Lady Bulldogs as the Lady Blazers went on a 15-2 run to take a 19-7 lead midway through the second quarter.

Torrington’s lead only grew from there as they took a 31-13 lead into the locker room.

The Lady Blazer lead reached as many as 21 before Wheatland started its rally over the final eight minutes of the game.

The Lady Bulldogs chipped away at the deficit throughout the quarter, getting the Torrington lead under 10 with two minutes left in the game.

Hill led the Lady Blazers with a double-double, scoring 11 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Freshman Reece Halley had 19 points, while freshman Mattie Jones tossed in 10.

The next day, Torrington returned home to face Burns and celebrated the careers of two seniors – Laura Halley and Brielle Bivens – with a 60-34 win over the Lady Broncs.

“The fact those two have persevered and survived, I couldn’t be prouder of them,” Halley said. “They haven’t had the greatest shake. Their class hasn’t had all the success in the world, but they keep working hard. Those two have given us everything since they were kids.”

Despite it being Senior Night, it was the freshman Halley who carried the Lady Blazers in the early going. Reece tallied six of the team’s first nine points as Torrington jumped out to a 9-3 advantage.

The Lady Blazers’ lead reached double digits early in the second quarter and only grew for the remainder of the game.

“Coming into this weekend, I was pretty nervous how it was going to go with the way we’ve been playing,” Halley said. “Our girls responded. We tried making things a little simpler this week. We wanted to concentrate on just playing instead of being perfect. They responded well. They were playing harder than they have all year.”

Reece Halley led the team with 25 points and 10 rebounds, while Bivens added 12 points and six rebounds. Hill tossed in eight points and grabbed 10 boards.

The Lady Blazers wrap up the regular season on the road at Rawlins on Friday.

“Rawlins is good. We gave them a run when we played them here,” Halley said. “Burns gave them all they wanted (on Friday). We are going to have to play well to give them a shot, but I like how we are playing a lot more than we did a couple weeks ago.”