Avon HS Sports Roundup

The Avon High School boys basketball team and ice hockey team are playing well heading into state tournament action.

The Falcons hoops squad advanced to the NCCC Tournament final and will now set its sights on advancing in the state Class L tournament.

The hockey team received a first-round bye in the D-III tournament as the No. 3 seed.

Ice Hockey 

The Windsor-East Granby-Avon hockey team completed an excellent regular-season campaign with a 5-2 victory over Rockville-Manchester-Stafford on Tuesday at the Bolton Ice Palace.

The Wave finished the regular season with a record of 16-4 and earned the No. 3 seed in the D-III state tournament. The Wave have a bye and will face the winner of the first-round matchup between No. 6 Newtown (14-5)-No. 11 Rocky Hill-RHAM-Middletown (10-10) on Thursday.

Brookfield-Bethel-Danbury (16-4) is the top seed in D-III, where the top four teams received byes.

Boys Basketball

The Falcons advanced to the finals of the North Central Connecticut Conference basketball tournament, where they lost to Enfield, 71-52, Thursday at Enfield High School.

It was the second straight conference tournament title for Enfield (20-3), which is seeded fourth in the Class M state tournament and will host Norwich Tech on Monday.

Avon (13-10) did a good job on Enfield’s Tre Preston, who entered the game averaging 26 points, but managed just 15 against Avon.

Despite the fact that the Falcons did a good job on Preston, the Raiders had too much firepower.

"We did a good job on Tre tonight," Avon coach Chris Vozzolo said. "We put it all out there, but Enfield was a way better team tonight. They came out with too many weapons."

Matt Naddaff was the only Falcon in double figures, scoring 15 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter.

Avon begins the Class L tournament on the road, visiting Wilby on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Girls Basketball

The Falcons won the NCCC regular-season crown for the 10^th time in 12 seasons but ended the campaign on a bit of a disappointing note, losing in the seimfinals of the NCCC tournament and dropping their first game in the Class L tournament to Masuk of Monroe at home after earning a bye for the first round.

“There is no question that the season did not end as we hoped it would,” Avon coach Frank Waters said. “Losing in the semifinals of the league tourney and the second round of the states was disappointing. Still, there were many highlights.”

Among the highlights were Avon’s 15-1 league record during the regular season and a buzzer-beater victory over two-time defending Class LL champion NFA. The Falcons finished the season 18-6.

Individually, junior Caroline Jadovich broke the school record for points in a season (423) and three point baskets (63) and Emily Jordan enjoyed a great all-around season leading the team in rebounds and blocks and finishing second in assists and steals

Jadovich and Jordan were also named All-NCCC.

Senior Kiera Givens scored over 200 points (213) for the second straight year and led the team in steals and Maggie Hartman battled back from ACL surgery to play very well in Avon’s final 12 games.

 While the team now can look back on its league title and other accomplishments, Waters is already excited about the future.

“Now, we need to re-group, work hard in the off-season to get better, and come back focused and determined next November,” Waters said. “We only lose three - Kiera, Emily, and Maggie, and we have a good nucleus including a strong freshman class returning.”