STAMFORD — With 2:30 left in the first half, Norwalk coach Rick Fuller pulled all-state guard Ashley Wilson out for a breather.
With Wilson out, the Bears outscored Trinity Catholic by seven over those final minutes and Fuller did not re-insert Wilson until the start of the third quarter.
He did not have to; the rest of the Bears were not missing a beat and not missing many shots, either.
Using a stifling defense and with four players scoring in double digits, No. 4 Norwalk rolled over Trinity 57-35 on Thursday night on Walsh Court.
Hunte of Norwalk pulls up from 3 #ctgb pic.twitter.com/yngZmjIkvQ
— Scott Ericson (@EricsonSports) January 10, 2019
“We hit them with multiple defenses. The girls know in order to beat teams like Trinity or other upper-echelon teams, you can’t come out slow and you can’t come out soft. You have to play an intense four quarters of basketball,” Fuller said.
“The more people who score, the harder we’re going to be to defend. If we can hold teams under 40, we have a great chance to win and we’ve been doing that the last few games. Defense travels.”
Wilson did not score after the second quarter but finished with 10 points, as did Jakara Murray-Leach and Anaijah Morgan, while Carsyn Langhorn led the Bears with 14 points.
Hunte of Norwalk pulls up from 3 #ctgb pic.twitter.com/yngZmjIkvQ
— Scott Ericson (@EricsonSports) January 10, 2019
Norwalk was up 20-11 after one quarter, using a 14-0 run to expand that lead in the second.
The Bears never relented on defense, creating turnovers and transition baskets all night, never letting Trinity even sniff a comeback.
Norwalk (9-0, 7-0 FCIAC) showed why it is ranked so high in the GametimeCT poll.
Trinity (7-2, 5-2) was not close on this night but Mike Walsh thinks his team can learn a ton from playing one of the state’s best.
“They have a lot of weapons and are a very talented team. I think this was a good measure for us to see where we stand and what we have to do to get better,” Walsh said. “I think we got caught up in their tempo and we need to be able to play at our tempo. Hopefully we can get in the FCIACs and get another shot at them.”
Kyah Nowlin had 14 points for Trinity while Iyanna Lops added 13.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Carsyn Langhorn, Norwalk. Langhorn not only paced the scoring for the Bears but distributed the ball all night and played smothering defense, creating turnovers.
QUOTABLE
“We just took them out of their game. We kept playing man-to-man defense and we kept being aggressive and getting in their faces,” Langhorn said. “We played a spectacular first half and we got the W. It feels good to come in here and win in their house.”
NORWALK 57, TRINITY CATHOLIC 35
NORWALK 20 17 10 10—57
TRINITY 11 9 5 10—35
NORWALK (9-0, 7-0 FCIAC) Carsyn Langhorn 6 2-3 14; Sanaa Boyd 0 0-0 0; Ashley Wilson 4 0-0 10; Jakara Murray-Leach 4 1-2 10; Naeva Rene 2 1-2 5; Belinda Hunte 2 3-8 8; Anaijah Morgan 5 0-0 10; Serenity Mayhew 0 0-0 0. Totals: 23 7-15 57
TRINITY (7-2, 5-2) Emma Garner 1 2-3 4; Kyah Nowlin 5 4-6 14; Caitlyn Scott 1 0-3 2; Iyanna Lops 5 0-0 13; Kiera Fenske 1 0-0 2; Sarah Jablonsky 0 0-0 0. Totals: 13 6-11 35
3-point field goals: N—Wilson 2, Murray-Leach, Hunte; TC—Lops 3
