Girls Basketball Falls to East Catholic

Windsor girls basketball lost to East Catholic at home on Friday. The Warriors played from behind for the majority of the contest, but battled to make it a close game before ending up on the losing end of a 65-51 contest.

Anyone in attendance will tell you that the 14-point deficit does not tell the whole story.

Windsor was down by 12 at the half. East Catholic's press gave Windsor troubles early on, but Windsor was able to adjust and chip away at East Catholic's lead in the final two quarters.

East Catholic's lead was cut down to four with under three minutes remaining in the third quarter. The comeback effort was thanks, in large part, to a great display of hustle by junior Ashley Santos and senior Tasia Franklin, who both added seven points in the third quarter alone.

The hustle to get back into the game resulted in an uncharacteristically high-scoring quarter for the Warriors. Windsor scored 21 points in the third, but East Catholic poured in 15 of their own and maintained a six point lead going into the fourth and never looked back.

Windsor had several chances to make it a two possession game, but missed shots and East Catholic pressure snatched the game away.

With the five minutes to go, Windsor was within seven of their visitors, but East Catholic went on a 13-2 run to end the game.

As the contest slipped out of his team's hands, Windsor coach Vinnie Cianfarani called a timeout and told his team to hold their heads high.

"My message to them was that someone who wasn't at this game would look at [the score] and say 'East Catholic beat Windsor easily,' but this game was a game for 28 of 32 minutes," Cianfarani said.

The loss was Windsor's first at home, making them 6-4 on the season. Coach Cianfarani could not be more proud of his squad.

"We're 6-4, but that's not a bad record... We've got some high-quality wins versus Hall who is 9-1. We be a Glastonbury team who is 8-2. We played a tough East Catholic game, [they are] now 7-3."

More than anything, Cianfarani is encouraging his player to focus on their studies right now. "Now is the time to buckle down and be a student; exams are coming up," he said.

Tasia Franklin led Windsor scorers with 17 points.