Sports
Mercy Girls Lose State Title in Nailbiter, 44-42
The Tigers rally at the end, but lose state title to Newtown.
The third time was supposed to be the charm — but for the third straight year, head coach Tim Kohs and the Mercy High School girls' basketball team were denied a CIAC Class LL championship title at Mohegan Sun Arena. Ninth-seeded Newtown held off the Tigers' late charge on Friday night to earn the 44-42 victory.
“It's hard to get here,” a subdued Kohs said after the game. “I give us credit for being here three years in a row. I was disappointed two years ago. I was disappointed last year. I'm disappointed tonight, and I'll be disappointed next year if we don't win it. We've got the whole group back next year, but that doesn't give me much comfort now.”
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Newtown's Jessica Lynch hit the game-winning bucket on a feed from senior guard Riley Wurtz with 22 seconds left before Bridget Power closed the game with a free throw for the Nighthawks.
Newtown (22-4) opened the third quarter with a 9-0 run and vaulted ahead, 32-19 with 4:39 left in the quarter.
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“They are a very streaky team like we are. All of a sudden they go up by 13, and back we come,” Kohs said. “We made a heckuva push. We came all the way back. It seemed like we had all the momentum. We figured out how to put the ball in the basket. It would have been nice if we did that a little earlier.”
The 10th-seeded Tigers capped a 14-4 fourth-quarter tear with a big offensive rebound and hoop from freshman Maura Fitzpatrick with just under 30 seconds left to play to inch Mercy ahead, 42-41, but the Tigers could not hold onto the lead.
Mercy's Kendra Landy knotted the game at 19-19 with two free throws before Newtown closed the second quarter with a 4-0 spurt to take a 23-19 lead into the break.
“I thought we had enough good looks and enough opportunities in the first half to be up six or eight at halftime,” according to Kohs. “We got shots to go halfway down and out. If a couple of those go in, it's tied or we're up two or three and it's a different game.”
Wurtz led Newtown with 18 points, followed by 12 from Power. Junior guard Jordyn Nappi topped Mercy (21-6) with 14 points, including five in the fourth quarter.
