Girls Basketball: Suffield High Spoils Granby Memorial's Senior Night

Suffield High’s Brianna Bishop and Meredith Ouellette combined for 40 points to help spoil the Granby Memorial High girls basketball team’s Senior Night, as the Wildcats gutted out a 51-46 victory in Granby Tuesday evening.

The victory did not come easily for the Wildcats (16-4, 14-2 NCCC), who locked up the second seed in the upcoming North Central Connecticut Conference tournament.

Indeed, Suffield gave up leads of 13 and 9 points, and actually fell behind by 4 late in the fourth quarter before coming back, courtesy of Bishop (24 points) and Ouellette (16 points).

Trailing 44-40, Suffield went on a 7-0 run when Ouellette hit a 3-pointer, and Bishop hit a basket and four free-throws to put the Wildcats up 47-44 with 1:02 left.

Few people would have predicted such a close finish considering how the game started, as Suffield bolted out to an 18-5 lead early in the second quarter; Bishop accounted for 12 of the Wildcats’ 18 points on a series of drives to the basket and pull up jumpers in the paint.

“We came out, we played hard and we played well,” Suffield High head coach Jeremiah Brown said.

Ashley Gleason also had six points for Suffield.

The Bears (16-4, 13-4 NCCC) were hurt in part by senior defense specialist Gabby Dixon getting into foul trouble early; Dixon, who is normally tasked with guarding the opposition’s top guard - in this case Bishop - picked up two quick fouls in the opening two minutes of the first quarter.

“We got taken out of our game right at the beginning,” Granby Memorial head coach Dean Godin said. “The way Gabby plays, if she picks up a third one, she’s going to change the way she plays for the rest of the game. We can’t have that.”

But Granby Memorial didn’t wilt and started to chip away at Suffield’s lead.

Kristen Endorf (13 points), Haley Makuch (13 points), Emily Stone (13 points) and Julia Mazzotta (5 points) each took turns stepping up to do their part in the comeback.

Trailing 20-7 in the second quarter, the Bears went on a 10-3 run to close out the half courtesy of a Stone 3-pointer, two free throws and a jumper from Mazzotta and a layup from Stone to close the gap to 23-17.

Granby Memorial continued to claw back in the third, pulling even at 29-29 with 2:42 left in the third period on a basket by Makuch.

But Suffield once again hit back with a 7-0 run of its own to close out the quarter to take a seemingly insurmountable 36-29 lead.

But the Wildcats failed to deliver the knockout blow, as Endorf and Stone scored four points apiece in the opening minutes of the fourth to close the gap to 40-37. Makuch and Stone then combined to hit four free throws to give the Bears their first lead since the opening moments of the first quarter at 41-40.

“They went on a run in the fourth quarter, we played tentative and we backed down and we were afraid, should we score, should we not score,” Brown said. “In the end, we said we were going to win or lose our way.”

The loss was particularly dispiriting to Godin, who felt like the team bidding farewell to its nine seniors before the game may have played a factor in the game’s uneven opening quarter.

“We can’t spot them 13 points,” Godin said. “It was an emotional night and Suffield did some nice things, but we were ready for it. We weren’t adjusting to how they were playing. We weren’t playing as a team. We played as a bunch of individuals. We can’t play that way. We just can’t spot a team like that and think we’re going to win.

“We had four losses to two teams. It’s quality teams. We have a lot of work to do. I’m comfortable with where we’re at. We’re a veteran team. I would have liked to have seen us finish the game, you’re up four with two and a half minutes to go at the free throw line. Then we forget to guard on a three pointer and we know the kid’s a shooter. I would have felt better. I don’t mind getting beat. I feel like we lost.”

Notes: Prior to the game, the Bears bade farewell to seven seniors: Dixon, Makuch, Ellie McDougall, Sara Eckhardt, Kylynn Kane, Michele Guttermuth and Endorf, as well as two team managers.

Correction: The original version of this article omitted Michele Guttermuth as one of the seven seniors honored on Senior Night. The Granbys Patch regrets the error.