TORRINGTON – The Torrington High School girls’ basketball team dropped a pair of contests against 3A Northeast Quadrant opponents over the weekend.
On Friday, the Lady Blazers fell to Newcastle 37-34.
“We had a 10-point lead in the fourth,” THS coach Jeff Halley said. “We got sloppy, and they caught fire.”
Torrington struggled to shoot the ball, knocking down only 24 percent of its shots, but Halley attributed being able stay in the game to the team’s defense.
“We played great defense for about 3 quarters, which kept us in it with a poor shooting night but didn’t get it done,” he said. “The girls are still learning to play with that intensity for 32 minutes.”
In the loss, freshman Reece Halley scored a team-high 10 points, while sophomore Avery Fox added seven.
The next day, the Lady Blazers hosted the Buffalo Lady Bison, the defending state runners-up.
The Lady Bison raced out to a 22-2 lead, forcing Torrington to use three timeouts in the first six minutes of the game.
Once past that first eight minutes, Torrington outscored Buffalo 40-34 over the final three quarters of play for the 56-42 win.
“Against Buffalo, I was proud of the way the girl fought back to stay in the game,” Halley said. “They smacked us early, but once we finally settled down, I liked how we battled with them.
“It is another good example for our girls to understand what it takes to play with top-level teams. We are still learning to battle a whole game at that level.”
Halley scored a team-high 15 points, while junior Ona Albaugh added five.
The Blazers will host Douglas on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Willi Gym.
