After early exits from the Naugatuck Valley League tournament, the Woodland and Naugatuck girls basketball teams are eager to make some noise in the state tournaments.
No. 6 Naugatuck (15-6) fell to No. 3 Sacred Heart (15-7), 52-50, in the NVL quarterfinals Feb. 22 at Holy Cross High School.
Brielle Behuniak led Naugy with 13 points and Kaylee Jackson scored 11 points. Felicia Salvati added seven points, and Hailey Russell and Lauryn Ramalho each had six points each.
The Greyhounds are the No. 10 seed in the Class L tournament and will open the tourney with a home game Tuesday against No. 23 Guilford (8-12). The winner advances to the second round on Friday to face the winner of the first-round game between No. 7 Wethersfield (16-4) and No. 26 ranked Farmington (6-14).
Hawks host home game: No. 7 Woodland (14-7) opened the NVL tournament against eventual champion and No. 2-seeded Holy Cross (21-2), which cruised to a 65-40 win.
Andra Bojka and Riley Kane had 10 points each to lead the Hawks.
Woodland earned the No. 8 seed in the Class M tournament. The Hawks will host their first state tournament game since 2011 Monday against No. 25 Valley Regional (7-13). With a win, the Hawks will host a home game in the second round on Thursday against No. 9 Cromwell (13-7) or No. 24 Lyman Hall Memorial (7-13).
“We are excited to be playing at home in the states,” Woodland head coach Jess Moffo said. “We got away from everything that we have been doing all year against Holy Cross. It was a rough game. Everything we worked on and prepared for we went in the opposite direction.
“Hopefully we can put that behind us. Now we are in a win-or-go-home scenario, so hopefully we can execute better than we did against Holy Cross. One of our goals was to work for a home game in the state tournament and we achieved that, so we are looking to make the most of that opportunity.”
