NEWPORT – For 24 minutes the Newport Tigers and Windsor Yellow Jackets were locked a battle that featured some entertaining and physical hard-nosed basketball. Unfortunately for Newport, the other 8 minutes belonged to Windsor.
Angelina Bigwood came off the bench and brought some attitude into the game dropping in 11 points, as she and teammate Olivia Rockwood exploded for a combined 25 2nd quarter points to push Newport in a hole they couldn’t climb out of.
As the Windsor press kicked into hyper-drive, the Tigers came unglued in that 8 minute span, as the Yellow Jackets built a 37-14 lead at the half after leading only 9-4 at the end of the first.
Newport used a man-to-man defense as Selena Coronis was matched up with 1000-point scorer Rockwood (junior) in the early going until Coronis was whistled for her third foul.
“We were playing solid defense but that third call on Selena really bit us hard,” said Newport coach Ross Dole after the game.
With Coronis on the bench, Windsor seemed to find their rhythm as Alyssa Burr and Riely Skarin were extending the Newport zone defense. That zone opened up the floor for Windsor as Bigwood was on fire. By the half, the paint was under control of Windsor’s Reese Perry, Brooke McKeen and Ashley Grela as they limited Newport to single shots and the Yellow Jackets’ outlet passes were crisp to get their fast breaks started.
“We hate to lose and we remembered last year against Newport… tonight was a redemption game for us,” said Bigwood after the game.
Windsor ran off six straight points to open the second half but Newport was in no mood to lay down, and closed out the quarter with a 10-0 blast of points in a very physically played third quarter that had the Newport fans into the game.
Burr started things off with a loud three pointer in the final stanza while Eliza Bates and Skarin chipped in with hoops to cut the lead to 50-34 but that would be as close as Newport would get.
“I thought we had a good first half but we were just flat in the third, we can finish better but Newport is always a tough test so we’re happy to get out of here with a win,” said Windsor head coach Bruce Mackay. “We had good energy the entire game and maybe all the substituting may have disrupted our momentum a bit.”
Olivia Rockwood would end the night with a quiet 30 points, if that’s possible, while Bigwood would add 13 points for Windsor. Alyssa Burr ended the night with 14 points for the Tigers
In JV action, it was Windsor ending up with a 56-20 win. Elliot Rupp scored 11 for the Yellow Jackets while Erin Seagrove netted 5 points for the Tigers.
Newport is at Stevens next Tuesday while Windsor hosts Green Mountain on Friday night.
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