7/28/2019 023 Cromwell vs Notre Dame Firfield Basketball Class M Championship 3-15-13

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The Chronicle - January 2012

The Chronicle - April 201314

Chronicled

By Kathleen Pulek

Lindsay Langenauerdidnt want any regrets aterFriday nights Class M state

championship game againstNotre Dame-Faireld atMohegan Sun Arena.

This was my last gameso I knew that I wanted toleave the foor and have noregrets, the 5-10 seniorsaid in the Cromwell lock-er room. I didnt want tocome home ater the gameand think, I should havedove or the ball. I shouldhave taken the open shot.

The top-seeded Pan-thers got o to a slow start,with Notre Dames Jo-van Kingwood and Amber

James combining or 16 rsthal points to give the num-ber two seed leads o 14-10 and 18-16 at the end othe rst two quarters as theLancers outshot Cromwell,34.8 percent (8-23) 22.7percent (5-22).

At haltime, Pantherscoach Kelly Maher told herplayers, Weve probablyust played the worst hal

weve played all season andwere only down two. Weust have to come back and

play our style o game andrebound.

We did that, especiallytoward the end o the game.We ocus on deense everyday and thats what won thegame, she said.

The Panthers took Ma-hers words to heart and re-sponded with tough deensethat limited Notre Dame(24-5) to a single point inthe third period while Lan-genauer and junior JanelleHarrison combined to stake

Cromwell to a 23-19 leadbeore the Panthers hit theirstride in the nal periodand ensured a Class M statechampionship title and an

undeeated season (28-0),with the 42-28 victory.

I think the second halreally was a wake up call,Langenauer said. Wethought coming in thiswasnt going to be an easygame so the second hal wecame out and showed wedeserved to win. I think itjust all hit us that this wasour last game together asa team. Were never goingto play together again withthe same exact people, so Ithink we really wanted to goout with a win.

It wasnt our goal tobe undeeated, the seniorcontinued. Our goal wasto come to the Sun and winthe championship. Beingundeeated just came alongwith all o the hard work weput in.

The victory snapped astate championship droughtor the Panthers, who hadcome up short in their ClassS title bids in 1989, 1990and 2011.

Notre Dame, now un-successul in ve bids ora Class M title, ound thebasket at 6:02 o the nalquarter when Alex Danashit rom long range to cutthe Cromwell lead to 25-22. Senior co-captain KellyFlanigans three-point playgave the Panthers a bit obreathing room, 30-24, with5:30 let on the clock. Athree-point play rom Har-rison put Cromwell ahead,33-26, with 3:52 let be-tween the Panthers and the

Class M title.Langenauer topped all

players with 18 points, ol-lowed by 16 rom Harrison.The due combined to out re-bound Notre Dame, 27-24.Harrisons game-high 18 re-

bounds were split o the o-ensive and deensive glass.This was almost unbe-

lievable, said Harrison, theShoreline Conerence Play-er-o-the-Year who scoredher 1,000th career pointin the semi-nal win overdeending Class M cham-pion Weaver last week.We knew we werent go-ing home with a loss, butthen the buzzer sounded andwe knew we actually won.

What an amazingeeling.

I couldnt be

prouder o this groupo kids, or whattheyve done all yearand or the way theybattled tonight, saidMaher. They couldhave lost their com-posure. They justought deeper andharder on each andevery possession.

Lindsay wasspectacular, Maheradded. She wantedto win this morethan anything. Shegot every rebound

we needed. Shes asenior; its her lastgame. I cant sayenough about howwell she played.

A smiling Fla-nigan called the vic-tory, Everything wewanted. And it cametrue. When it reallymattered, all sea-son long, we cametogether and won.Flanigan nishedwith nine points,seven rebounds and a

trio o assists.

It doesnt seem real,Alexa Riley said aterher nal scholastic game.Winning every game isunbelievable. Were statechampions and were 28-0.Riley chipped in two points,three rebounds, a pair o as-sists and a block.

I thought we did a re-ally good job o containingthem, at times, Notre Damecoach Eric DeMarco said.Thats a team that, whenyou let your guard down,can make a 10-12 point runin a minute and a hal. Thebetter team wore us down.Their post players did agreat job inside and theirguards played pretty well.Despite our best eorts, wecouldnt get some shots toall, and a lot o that wasdue to Cromwells deense.The Lancers shot 11.5 per-cent (3-26) in the secondhal.

The Panthers becomethe rst high school teamto go undeeated in Con-necticut since Holy Cross in2007. Photos by Dave Burnham, ESNAP Sport

www.esnapsport.wordpress.com

Panthers Take Home Class M State Title

The Panthers, after winning the Class M state title against Notre Dame, show whos number one.

Notre Dames Nakin Mabin defends against Lindsay Langenauer (40).

Senior co-captain Kelly Flanigan (34) directs the Cromwell attack.

Junior Janelle Harrison drives to the basket in Cromwells Class M championshipvictory.