The Darien Times

Killing the clock brings playoff bid to life

Written by Steven Buono
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 12:40 PM

Girls Basketball

Darien held off Warde 49-42 to snag an FCIAC playoff berth on the second to last game of the regular season at home on Monday.

“We were only up by three points with three minutes to play,” said Wave girls hoops coach Gary Peterson. “So, it was a tough game at that point.”

And it was Senior Night at that, adding fuel to the required fire.

“So we played with a little bit of extra incentive,” Peterson said. “That always seems to help. I can’t remember the last Senior Night game that we lost.”

With the win Darien will slot into either seventh or the eighth place when the playoffs begin Saturday.

The Wave improves to 11-8 overall, 10-7 FCIAC, Warde drops to 12-7, 10-7.

“I called a time-out (late) and decided to go five out and hold the ball,” Peterson said of the last few minutes of play. “And made them come out and play us, and kill the clock without turning it over.”

Warde blew up then going into foul trouble and finding top players bounced.

“And we made some foul shots and created a couple of more turnovers,” Peterson said. “They had three people foul out for them.”

Meg Marren led the Wave with 16 game-high points and went 8-for-17 from the foul stripe.

Kate Bushell scored nine points and went 4-for-8 from the stripe, Leslie Yuen and Lane Davis had six points apiece, Emily Stein and Amy Biggart scored five points each, Kelly Karczewski added two points, Susan Biggart contributed.

Wave scoring totals were 15 17-33 49.

It was tied 12-12 after one period and Darien took a 26-21 lead at the half. Warde outscored the Wave 11-6 in the third quarter and Darien came back to outscore the Mustangs 17-19 in the fourth.

Jamera Fountain led the Mustangs with 12 points.

“It’s very exciting, we actually have an outside chance of getting seventh place,” Peterson said, with only last place Bassick remaining on the regular slate.

Danbury would be the top seed opponent and is undefeated and St. Joseph is No. 2, both teams Darien lost to this season.

“We can match them up in the middle, but they have a couple of girls, twins, that are tough,” said Peterson of the Hatters.

Bushell got into foul trouble too, but got out of it in the end.

“I put her back in, maybe even prematurely,” Peterson said. “But it was like, I’m not going to lose this game with Kate on the bench.”

She went back on the court with just over six minutes to play.

“And she stayed in and she had a couple of big steals, and finished,” Peterson said. “And that pushed us over the edge.”

Only a few more foul shots through the ring and this would have been no-sweat.

“I think we were the better team... That’s just our style of basketball,” he added. “We don’t like to do things the easy way.”

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