Granby Memorial Girls Pull Off Rare Victory Over Avon

You can forgive the exuberant celebration from the Granby Memorial High girls basketball team when the clock struck 0:00 against Avon High on Friday evening in Granby.

Indeed, according to Bears head coach Dean Godin, Granby Memorial’s 43-37 victory may have been the first time in the program’s history that the team defeated the Falcons.

It took the Bears’ depth coupled with Avon’s difficulty limiting Granby Memorial (16-3) to just one chance on the offensive end to upend the Falcons (13-6), who have now lost three of its last four games against North Central Connecticut Conference foes.

“We went 11 deep, and all 11 players did something to impact the game,” Godin said. “That doesn’t happen very often. That’s pretty special.”

Indeed, while the usual suspects of guard Kristen Endorf (seven points) and forward Haley Makuch (eight points) had great games, it was point guard Emily Stone (eight points) and forward Ellie McDougall (team-high nine points) who led the second-half push to put the Bears in front for good.

Stone hit two big 3-pointers in the third quarter, the first putting Granby Memorial up 28-27, the second just over a minute later to give the Bears a 32-30 lead with 14 seconds left in the period.

They were two shots that brought a smile to Godin’s face.

“Emily started off the season really, really well, but she went into a little bit of a lull where she was actually looking to be the perfect point guard instead of recognizing opportunities where she could get her own offense,” Godin said. “Tonight I put her into some situations where she had to look for her own shot. Their whole defense was geared to stop Kristen Endorf from driving to the basket, and it frustrated the heck out of her. Emily had to step up. If she didn’t, we don’t win.”

McDougall, for her part, had five big points in the fourth quarter, including a 3-point play with 6:39 left that extended Granby Memorial’s lead to four at 37-33 after Chelsea Foster brought Avon back to within one point with a 3-pointer of her own just seconds earlier.

Equally important for the Bears was the fire that McDougall brought onto the court with her.

“Emily McDougall played a fantastic game,” Godin said. “She’s our heart and soul. She’s diving on the floor, pumping her fist, making big and-ones. We’ve been a good team for two years now. It’s just we’ve never had it to get over the hump in these games. And we can now get over that hump.”

Julia Mazzotta had five points for Granby Memorial, while Gabby Dixon had four and Sara Eckhardt had two.

As for Avon, head coach Frank Waters said that the difference in the game was his team’s inability to grab rebounds on the defensive end.

“Time after time after time they got second and sometimes third and fourth opportunities,” Waters said. “We got an initial stop, but they then persevered and scored hoops. Maybe they were a little quicker than we were, too. They beat us on the perimeter.”

Anna Schrecencost scored a game-high 16 points, but just six of those came after the first quarter, as Avon continues to struggle on offense.

“We didn’t execute well on the offensive end,” Waters said. “I have to give their defense credit. They’re a scrappy, tough defensive team. But we didn’t run our offense through to its conclusion.”

Foster had nine points, while Shannon Curry had four and Colleen Norton, Caroline Schaefer, Michaela Marcus and Alana Pulling each had two for the Falcons.

Regardless, the victory also meant more to the Bears than ending their decades-long losing streak and Godin’s personal 9-year losing skid to Avon (Godin hadn’t beaten Avon in his six years at Enfield in addition to his three at Granby Memorial).

“When you beat a team as good as Avon, as talented as Avon, it proves to you that you can make a run in any tournament your in,” Godin said.