St. Joseph secured the No. 1 seed for the 2024 FCIAC Girls Basketball Tournament and the Cadets were indeed the favorite to win their second conference championship in the last three years.
But it was going to be a legitimate challenge because the Cadets were going to have to win it while overcoming a major loss with the injury to their star player, their 5-foot-10 senior tri-captain Erin Lovett.
Coach Chris Lindwall’s Cadets were determined boost Lovett’s spirits with a victory in the FCIAC final while Lovett cheered them on from the bench and they did just that with a 43-31 victory over New Canaan.
The was a major highlight from this past winter’s girls’ basketball season in the FCIAC.
The Stamford and Fairfield Warde teams each won two games to advance to the quarterfinals of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Girls Basketball Tournament and that was the farthest that any FCIAC teams advanced in any of the state class tournaments.
New Canaan’s Rams were seeded No. 7 in the FCIAC tourney so they were looking for their third straight upset victory in the final.
But it was a staunch St. Joseph defense which led to the Cadets taking a 24-10 lead into the halftime locker room and a 32-16 lead into the fourth quarter.
Gigi Gracia sank a pair of three-pointers and scored 12 points while Grace Montelli and Erin Donegan added nine and eight points, respectively, to lead St. Joseph’s balanced scoring attack.
Claire Ognibene scored 15 points to lead New Canaan. Fiona Mueller had eight points and Tia Kivikko added seven for the Rams.
St. Joseph’s Cadets advanced to the FCIAC final for the third consecutive year with their 41-36 victory over Fairfield Warde in overtime. Coach Kim Palmer’s New Canaan Rams got there with a 33-29 semifinal victory over third-seeded Ridgefield.
St. Joseph and New Canaan both began their tournament runs with impressive quarterfinal victories. Donegan drained four three-points while firing in 26 points and Gracia scored 17 points and had a trio of treys to lead St. Joseph to a 56-31 victory over eighth-seeded Wilton, which got 21 points from Ashleigh Masterson.
Ognibene scored 24 points and Kivikko had 17 as New Canaan stunned No. 2 Stamford, 47-42. Pauline Vlahakis and Nia Freeman had 12 and 11 points, respectively, to lead a Stamford team which had beaten the Rams in the regular season by 15 points, 48-33, at New Canaan on Jan. 30. Ognibene averaged 16 points for New Canaan in the three FCIAC tournament games.
Sheridan Oberhand of Trumbull was selected Player of the Year in the conference. Oberhand was joined on the 2023-24 All-FCIAC Girls Basketball First Team by Lovett, Masterson, Vlahakis, Sarah von Dohlen of Staples, Fairfield Ludlowe’s Kate Cimador, Danbury’s Cameron Froehlich, Fairfield Warde’s Ryanne Gulbin, and Ridgefield’s Mia McGarrity.
Lovett and Vlahakis were both selected to the 2023-24 GameTimeCT All-State Girls Basketball Second Team. Oberhand made All-State Third Team and McGarrity earned All-State Honorable Mention from GameTimeCT.
Donegan, Gracia and Ognibene were three of the eight players chosen to the All-FCIAC Second Team along with Fairfield Warde’s Emmy Carley, Ridgefield’s Anna Gillan, Stamford’s Jalynn Presley, Fairfield Ludlowe’s Phoebe Shostak, and Greenwich’s Madison Utzinger.
The nine players on the All-FCIAC Third Team included Mueller of New Canaan, Norwalk’s Kamiya Balcombe, Bridgeport Central’s Kiara Clarke, Wilton’s Madeline Dineen, Stamford’s Kaitlyn Fox, Trumbuyll’s Rylan Massey, Fairfield Ludlowe’s Hayden McBean, Ridgefield’s Andrea Paz, and Danbury’s Roxane Tweah.
Diane Burns has had much success as Stamford’s head coach and this year she was the Coach of the Year in the FCIAC.
St. Joseph’s Cadets secured the No. 1 seed in the FCIAC with a 14-1 conference record, they were 19-1 in the regular season and finished 22-2 overall after they drew a first-round bye in the Class LL state tournament and were eliminated in the second round by Norwich Free Academy, 59-28.
St. Joseph’s received the 12th most polling points in the Final 2024 GameTimeCT Top 10 Girls Basketball Poll. That was the most of any team from the FCIAC. The Cadets were ranked No. 3 in the state poll going into the postseason but going winless in the state tournament was impactful toward them dropping nine spots and out of the Top 10. They were among three FCIAC teams out of the 11 total teams in the “Others receiving votes” category.
Fairfield Warde (18-7) received the 19th most polling points and Stamford (18-6) had the 21st most.
Hamden (25-3) defended its Southern Connecticut Conference and state Class LL championships and was unanimously ranked No. 1 for the second straight season. The Green Dragons defeated Sacred Heart Academy, 46-40, in this year’s Class LL final to conclude a two-year run in which they had a combined 52-3 record.
SHA (25-3) was voted No. 2.
Simsbury (23-4) was ranked No. 3 after the Trojans won the Class L championship with a 55-40 victory over Holy Cross (24-3), which earned the No. 5 ranking in the final Top 10 poll.
Northwest Catholic (24-5) was No. 4 after winning the Class MM championship with its 43-37 victory over Sheehan.
Conard (22-5) was ranked sixth and followed by Class M state champion St. Paul, Central Connecticut Conference champion Windsor (19-8), No. 9 Newington (20-6), and Class MM runner-up Sheehan (17-6).