Portland Advances to Class S Title Game

All season long the Portland Lady Highlanders have wanted what now awaits them and that is a shot at winning the Class S state girls' basketball championship.  Friday night they earned that opportunity, beating Capital Prep 51-46 at East Catholic High School in Manchester.

Before the game, coach Nick Chaconis said he told the team, "'We needed to stay with our style of basketball and to not get into a track meet with them.' I thought we did an excellent job with remaining patient and poised and I think the experience of last year's run to the championship game helped out tonight."

Capital Prep brought their high intensity defense right into the faces of Portland with tight man-to-man pressure, but the Lady Highlanders showed the patience and poise that Chaconis spoke about, broke the pressure and got good looks at the basket. Early on the shots were not falling as they fell behind 7-2 at the 4:20 mark. 

"We knew this team was going to come at us and we needed to remain balanced, patient and execute.  I think we did a good of that early but we just didn't put the ball in the basket," Chaconis said.

While Portland's defense clogged up the lane, Capital Prep was finding success early from behind the three-point line as Cierra Bortz (18 points) drilled two three-pointers.

Then Portland started hitting some shots and went on a 12-6 run to finish the quarter with a 14-13 lead with all five starters contributing. 

Junior forward Sarah Bierly (13 points, nine rebounds, four assists) had five points to lead Portland in the first quarter. 

"After we came out and the score was basically even after one quarter, we kept working hard and we wanted it more," a jubilant Bierly said. "We feel great. We played to the end and knew it would come down to foul shots."

Portland had a 14-10 lead with 40 seconds left in the first quarter after Bierly scored off a bullet pass along the baseline from junior Alyssa Unikewicz. 

"The whole team played tough and worked hard, but I think our unsung heros tonight were Sarah [Bierly] with her defense on Marjani [Johnson] and our guards Meaghan [Rodgers] and Alyssa keeping their poise and pressuring their guards," assistant coach Diane Coleman said.

Chaconis had two more things to pay attention to in the final 40 seconds, when the Trailblazers leading scorer Johnson (12 points) hit her second three pointer within a minute and senior co-caption Lindsey Dionne picked up her second foul.

Dionne, Portland's second-leading scorer began the second quarter on the bench and had to watch as Capital Prep regained the lead and her teammates continued to struggle from close range.  Portland would rely on its tough defensive schemes to keep Prep from getting into their offensive rhythm and keep the game close as they remained patient with their game plan.

"I told the kids, 'We just want to take this game one possession at a time,'" Chaconis said.

Prep would match its biggest lead of the game with 2:26 left in the half, when they went on top 25-20 led by Ciera Bortz and Johnson.

Coleman (21 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks) would answer with a three of her own from the left side and Bierly would add a free throw to close out the half on a little 4-0 run and only down 25-24.

"I'm just so glad we won. We had a lot of turnovers, but we ended up with more points than they had and that's all that counts," Kelly Coleman said.

Portland added to that run as the third quarter started by getting the ball in low to Coleman and Bierly on their first two possessions and took back the lead, 28-25.    With Portland leading 30-28 and 4:40 left in the third quarter, Dionne picked up her fourth foul and had to be taken out of the game.

In what would turn out to be a back-and-forth quarter, Prep took advantage of having Dionne on the bench and went on a 12-6 run to close out the third with a 40-36 lead.

"Lindsey is a smart player and knows a lot of the players on Prep so I told her to go out and defend their least threatening player.  She did a great job not picking up her fifth foul," said Chaconis, when asked was it a hard decision to start Dionne in the fourth quarter.

The quarter didn't start out well for Portland when Coleman was called for an offensive foul on the first possession.  Maybe that was just a wake-up call because Portland went on a 7-0 run to find themselves in front 43-40 with just over 3:00 to play.

Dionne had a big hand in that 7-0 run contributing five points. 

"Mohegan Sun, lets get it done. We wanted to get there all year," said Dionne as she was mobbed by Portland's faithful.

Capital Prep punched right back to take the lead 44-43  after baskets by Dymond Thomas and Johnson.  Portland had held the Trailblazers scoreless for over five minutes as they have done time and again to all comers this season. 

With 1:37 to go, Coleman put Portland back on top 45-44 after connecting on two free throws.  As each possession became more valuable, both coaches called time outs to drive their points home and to make sure that all were on board with what they had to execute.

With 48.6 seconds to go and a trip to their second state final lying in the balance, the Lady Highlanders drew on their experience to pull them through. 

"Experience from last year was huge, huge in the way that they wanted to get back  [to the championship game].  Last year was, let's say a magical run, but this year since they had a taste of it and with the nucleus coming back, they knew they had a good shot at accomplishing this goal," Chaconis said.

Unikewicz found herself at the free-throw line, lined up the shots and hit them both giving Portland a little breathing room and what would turn out to be the game winning points.  Capital Prep, who had been hitting threes most of the night was looking to get one more to tie the score. 

Enter Kelly Coleman. The senior picked off a lazy pass and went end-to-end to put Portland up  49-44.  After Prep hit a couple of free throws by Kenna Amos, Coleman would add a couple free throws of her own to ice the gameand send Portland to the championship game. Just like they set out to do back in November.

The Class S state championship basketball game will be held at the Mohegan Sun Arena next Friday night at 6 p.m. where the Lady Highlanders will take on Shoreline Conference rival Cromwell.

Cromwell defeated Windsor Locks 58-28 in the other semifinal.

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