Hand High's boys' basketball team qualified for the state basketball tournament with a 75-53 win over Foran of Milford Friday night. Hand's Joe Trapani had a huge night, scoring 40 points, grabbing 18 rebounds and blocking two shots. He shot 50-percent from the field and was 18-for-23 from the free throw line.

"We played some pretty good pressure defense tonight and I think that got them out of sync," said Hand coach Jeff Beeman. "It's the best game we've played in a while."

"This keeps us alive in the race for a spot in the Southern Connecticut Conference playoffs," said Beeman, while admitting it will take some luck to get in. "We have two games left that count with Hillhouse and with Jonathan Law, the last game of the year. It may come down to that last game."

In addition to Trapani, Travis Gulick was in double figures in the win over Foran with 14 points including four three-pointers. Mike Concannon chipped with with 11 points.

Hand led all the way, taking an 18-5 lead after one and opening that up to 40-29 at the half. The Tigers blew the game open in the third and took a 62-40 lead to the final quarter.

"After losing so many close games, it was nice to have a game in which we had a comfortable lead," said Beeman. "It gave us a chance to play some of the other kids and that's always a good thing."

The one-point loss to Cheshire on Tuesday was yet another in a string of agonizing losses for the Tigers. Six of Hand's losses are by a combined total of 14 points.

This game was lost when Cheshire's Colin McGovern hit a 14-foot jumper with seven seconds left in the game. Hand got off a desperation shot at the buzzer, but it missed.

"Cheshire played very good zone defense," said Beeman. "And we didn't play real well. It was a very big win for them and a tough loss for us because it was a cross-over game that counted in the league playoff standings."

Tuesday night's Southern Connecticut Conference interdivision girls' basketball battle between Hand and East Haven came down to a four-minute stretch in the third quarter.

Tied at 19-19, East Haven had three shots to go ahead for the first time all night and then the Yellowjackets also had a couple three-pointers when they were down two a minute later. But it was Hand that went on 22-5 run en route to a 45-32 victory.

The contest was all Hand throughout the first 13 minutes as the Tigers went out to leads of 13-4 and 19-8 before East Haven employed some halfcourt pressure tactics to try and give the hosts some problems. They worked as a pair of layups by Ashley Harkins (10 points) and a bucket by Nikki Bova helped the Yellowjackets closed it to 19-15 at the half.

"I think it was more halfcourt pressure," said Hand coach Jim Holleran. "We didn't get into our offense and didn't work the ball around well. Give them credit for working hard there."

A pair of Ashley Simmons free throws and a seal and lay-up by Jessica Moriarty deadlocked things at 19-19, Hand exploded on an 8-0 spurt to go ahead, 27-19, with 4:30 remaining in the third quarter.

"We expended a lot of energy to come back to tie it at 19-19, but I thought we had the momentum," said East Haven coach Vinny DeNuzzo. "I thought they felt a little bit of pressure they rushed their offense a little bit. If we go up two, four whatever, it forces them to play with some urgency, but it deflates you a little bit we had opportunities. You play this hard and the ball's not going down for us. We're just not putting the ball in the basket."

From that point on, it was all Hand as the Tigers pushed the lead to double figures pretty quickly, taking their biggest lead of the night, 43-25, on a Megan Flaherty basket with 5:07 to go in the contest.

"I think their kids play so darn hard all the time and we don't," said DeNuzzo. "We have spells when we play like we did at the end of the second quarter when we went from down 19-8 to 19-15 at the half. During that stretch, we played real hard."

"We had a good push and turned them over a few times so we could get a working margin," said Holloran. "It was a bit of a struggle tonight. We did enough good things to win."

The Tigers trailed Foran all night Friday, but rallied in the fourth quarter to tie, then won the game, 62-58, in overtime to win its 13th game of the season.

"We were down all night," said Hand coach Jim Holleran. "But the girls would not quit. We outscored them, 18-13, in the fourth quarter to tie the game, 53-53, and then we won it in overtime. We made huge free throws at the end of regulation and in overtime."

Jessica Hunt's two free throws tied the game late and sent it into overtime. Maria Picone made two freebies with eight seconds left in OT to put the Tigers up by four points and ice the game.

Hunt led the winners with 16 points and was 10-for-13 from the free throw line. Picone had 15 points and was 6-for-7 from the stripe. Shea Huller led Foran with 21 points.

The Tigers' scheduled game against rival North Branford, set for last Saturday night (8:30 p.m. opening faceoff) at the Northford Ice Pavilion was called off early in the day by school officials decided it would be too dangerous to send players and coaches out in buses for what was going to be a bad evening.

The Tigers would've been riding into the contest off of a 6-2 mid-week (Wednesday night) win over Cheshire which brought their overall won-lost record to 9-5.

"I keep going back to that Tri-Town game and how upset we all were after the loss," Courtmanche said. "It was a reality check for this team. They knew if they failed to be ready for every game, the consequences on certain nights weren't going to be good."

What the temporary delay does is give Hand a few more days (weather permitting on practices) to prepare for North Haven, another big game coming up on Wednesday, also at Northford. The two teams are scheduled to meet at 4 p.m.

"I'm looked over our schedule and I've realized that we have six, very demanding games left," Courtmanche said. "This time of the year that's the best way to have it. It gets us ready for the state tournament the best way possible.:"

After North Haven, which is ranked 10th in the New Haven Register's Top Ten poll and recently defeated Notre Dame-West Haven, 3-2 (also a Register Top-Ten team), the Tigers have contests left with North Branford (Feb. 20), Guilford (Feb. 22), Branford (Feb. 25) and Fairfield Prep (March 1).

"We're really looking forward to the Prep game," Courtmanche said. "After all, they have the premier hockey program in Connecticut. But I've warned the guys that we have five games to play before then. It's way too dangerous to look too far ahead."

Goals by Logan Gibbs and Sean Payne sandwiched around a score by Brett Bastecki had given the Rams (6-7) a 2-1 lead over Hand before the Tigers gradually wore down their opponents.

Mike Pasqualoni had two, second-period goals and Travis Bastecki's score gave Hand a 4-2 lead after two periods which they extended out to the final score when Matt Babnais and Brett Bastecki connected in the third period.

"We had a slow start which has been unusual for us lately," Courtmanche said. "But, once we figured out what they were trying to do and once we got working the puck in Cheshire's end, we were alright."

When Bridgett McNulty's shot found the back of the net last Wednesday afternoon at the Northford Ice Pavilion, it provided the spark needed for the Hand girls' hockey team.

With 9:23 gone by in the third period and a little over five minutes left in the game, the Tigers knew that they were still going to have to hold on against a Simsbury team that was able to strike quickly.

"When you're playing against Simsbury, with its reputation in girls' hockey, you know that you're in for a battle right up to the end of the game," Hand coach Rick Gedney said. "Nothing is ever final against a team like that until you hear the final horn."

"This win will definitely go a long ways toward putting a positive approach to the game among our players," Gedney said. "Simsbury has always had one of the premier programs in the state. When you beat them, you feel like you've accomplished something special."

After a scoreless first period, Hand struck quickly in the second period. Liz Foye gave her team a 1-0 lead at the one-minute mark, with Jenna Klaus and Lindsay Nelson assisting on the goal.

Cori Demandis evened the game at 7:18 before Caitlyn Bernick scored at 1:50 of the third period. Lindsay Nelson earned her second assist of the night on Bernick's goal.

"We have a deep bench this year and that is playing into our favor," Gedney said. "But, as you can see by the scoring, we never wore them down. It was close all the way."

"We've been very fortunate over the years to get good goalies and our coaching in that area has always been strong," Gedney said. "Chelsea has been one of the backbones of this team all season long."

Imagine, down by nearly 18 points heading into the final round of a wrestling tournament... there are 14 weight classes and the team ahead of you has seven wrestlers in the finals.

Just three short days after clinching the Southern Connecticut Conference regular season title with a solid 40-18 win over Cheshire, the Daniel Hand Tigers faced an end to that championship celebration.

The Tigers surged forward with six wrestlers of their own in the finals, winning all six while Amity of Woodbridge stumbled and lost all seven of their finals including three of them to Hand.

Jay Mahoney (112), Nick Spinnato (130), Nick Bernardo (135), Derek Fish (140), Justin Camputaro (152) and John Moulton (189) were all SCC Champions turning that large deficit into a 156.5-148 win over second place Amity.

"We were losing the whole time and we were down around 17 points heading into the final round. That's a lot of points when you only get four points for a win," explained D'Allessio.

D'Allessio went on to say, "It's surreal. It (the comeback) was half what we did and half what Amity did. We won all six of our finals and they didn't win a single final. I think we had better match-ups."

Adding to the drama was the fact that Mahoney was losing big to Ronny Waters whom he had just beaten on Wednesday night in the regular season clinching win over Cheshire (8-5). "Jay controlled the match on Wednesday but Ronny controlled this one. Jay caught him on his back at the end of the third period and pinned him (for an extra two points)."

Fish took home the 140 title after a tough 7-4 win over Foran's Zach Cammarano. Fish had a particularly good week when you consider the fact he wrestled up at 145 on Wednesday night and beat Robbie Tomlinson who wound up the SCC 145 champion on Saturday.

Jake Bernardo took care of Cheshire's Brett Pallato, 7-4, in his third-place clinching match. Dey pinned Amity's Zach Spencer in his battle for third.

Wednesday's big win was a matter of trust in D'Allessio's eyes. "I think the kids knew what was at stake and one of the things we challenged the kids on was to trust us as coaches."

D'Allessio elaborated, "We make decisions and we don't always have time to explain to the kids why we make them. We ask them to trust us and when that happens, it makes coaching really enjoyable."

Examples of those decisions were bumping Fish up to 145 against the eventual champion, Dan Gray moved up from 160 to 171 and beat Gerald Wren 13-11, Sam Edandison wrestled heavyweight (275) where he pinned John Turner in 2:19.

Taking 140 slot was Brendan Andrews who came away with a 6-0 win over Harold Zomback. Kyle Martin made the most of his opportunity at 119 with a major decision over Aaron Zomback, 11-2.

The Tigers figure to be a contender when they take part in the CIAC Class M Tournament on Saturday. "That is going to be a very competitive class...It's loaded with four or five of the top ten teams," said D'Allessio.

All eyes were on the Daniel Hand gymnastics team this past weekend, as they easily won their twelfth SCC Championship in a row on Saturday. At the perfect time of the season, the team scored a season high 139.00, with individuals winning three of the four events. Hand is the only team to win in the 12-year history of the SCC Championships.

Seeded first, Hand started its competition strongly on the vault. Junior Emily Savoca tied for second with a 9.05, her highest score of the season. Tri captains Heather Gilmore and Kim Simonsen were just behind in third (9.0) and fourth (8.95) respectively. Britney Dunne, also a tri-captain, rounded out the scoring with an 8.8, and a tie for sixth place.

Sophomore Alyssa Strickland, 2005 SCC Bars Champion, hit her set to score a 9.35 and defend her title. Simonsen and Savoca tied for fifth (8.5) and Gilmore placed sixth (8.4).

"Finally. Finally. She [Strickland] finally broke the barrier," said Hand coach Melissa Arms. "She was sick, and she's finally starting to feel better. She won bars at states last year and she could be right up there again this year."

On the beam, Simonsen stuck her routine cold, winning the event with a 9.35 and beating the second place finisher by four tenths. Savoca placed sixth (8.65). Gilmore, taking a risk with a new difficult mount scored a 7.9 and Strickland scored a 7.5 to add to the team score.

With the other three events already finished, the entire gym watched as the Tigers danced through their floor routines with smiles and confidence. Simonsen was again victorious with a 9.25, and Gilmore took fourth with a 9.0. Savoca and Strickland had an 8.55 and 8.25 respectively.

In the all around competition, Simonsen scored a season high 36.05, good for second place just behind Kaitlyn O'Donnell of Chesire (36.35). Savoca, also with a season high all around of 34.75, placed fifth and Gilmore placed seventh with a 34.30. Simonsen, Savoca, Gilmore, and Strickland were all placed on the SCC All-Conference team.

Guilford's Janel Haggerty also competed in the Championship as a team of one. She tied for seventh on the bars (8.2) and 11th on vault (8.3). Her all around score of 30.7 was good enough to tie for 18th place.

Earlier in the week, Hand was also at Jonathon Law winning the dual meet 134.8-132.35. Behind Jonathon Law's Jenn Pagiano, Simonsen was second in the all around with a 35.8. She was followed by Gilmore (33.85) and Strickland (33.15).

Warming up for her win at the SCC's, Strickland lead Hand on the bars with a 9.15. She was followed by Simonsen (8.7), Gilmore (8.65) and Dunne (8.0).

Simonsen again scored the top score on beam, with a 9.25, but the team struggled. Senior Liz Harmuth (8.0), Strickland (7.9) and Gilmore (7.6) also had counting scores.

Despite their stellar performance at the SCC Championship, Hand had a rough day on floor in this earlier meet. Simonsen scored an 8.85, Gilmore an 8.75, Dunne a 7.55 and junior Katie Bull scored a 7.5.

With one more dual meet left, the Tigers have set their sights on the State meet. Still unsure what class they are in, Arms is confident in her team's abilities. She said, "We have a very good shot at winning states,"

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