Sensational Action as FCIAC Rivals Battle for Class LL Basketball Title

UNCASVILLE, CT - As rivals in the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the Stamford and Greenwich girls basketball teams are very familiar with each other's styles and personnel.

That fact was evident in the Class LL championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena Sunday, a nip-and-tuck affair which finally saw Stamford grab the lead for good in the fourth quarter en route to a 50-45 victory.

During the regular season, Greenwich had defeated the Black Knights 64-55 on Feb. 3.

Given a chance to avenge that loss, Stamford did so on the state's biggest stage.

The Black Knights led 10-5 after one quarter, and opened up a nine point lead at 15-6. But Greenwich came back with an eight-point run to close the margin to one, before Stamford recovered to take a 20-16 lead into halftime.

After intermission, the Cardinals quickly tied the game at 20-20; the game was tied on five different occasions in the third quarter until Greenwich took the lead briefly with 3:05 remaining in the period.

Stamford tied it at 28-all, then forged ahead to wind up the third quarter with a 34-31 advantage.

An old-fashioned three-point play by Abigail Wolf lifted the Cardinals back into a tie at 34-34, but a jump shot by Alexa Kellner immediately pushed the Black Knights back ahead - this time to stay.

Kellner took game scoring honors with 19 points, while Tiana England added 10 points and seven assists. Andrea O'Conner hauled down eight rebounds for Stamford.

Wolf led Greenwich with 14 points and nine rebounds. Emily Anderson contributed 12 points and Kim Kockenmeister had eight rebounds for the Cardinals.

Photo credits: Tim Jensen