Lady Trojan cagers lose

The Weston girls basketball team could have used senior captain Jessica Welsh on Monday. Welsh was unavailable because she was awaiting the results of her MRI on her injured knee in Weston's 47-39 home loss to Brookfield. When the teams met in December, Brookfield won at home, 40-38.

Entering the game, the Lady Trojans won nine out of their last 11 games, dropped to 13-6. The Lady Bobcats maintained their top-ranking in Class M and raised their record to 16-3.

Sophomore Ellie Martin led Weston in the first quarter with eight points. Junior Hannah Hutchins nailed a 3-pointer and senior captain Natalie Odierna hit a basket.

Freshman Taylor Swanson grabbed a rebound for the Lady Trojans in the second quarter but Brookfield took a 21-13 lead. The Lady Bobcats extended the lead to 32-19 at the half.

Although Weston outscored Brookfield 20-15 in the second half, it wasn't enough to overcome the deficit. Martin led the Lady Trojans with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Odierna (seven points), Hutchins (six points), senior captain Brittany Swanson (four points) and Taylor Swanson (two points) also scored. Junior Christina Welsh ran the offense and played solid defense.

This game can be chalked up to a failure to execute the basketball fundamentals. Weston Coach Pat Cole said, "Coming out of this, we need to recommit ourselves to the basics -- working on defense and boxing out." He noted three separate occasions in which the Lady Bobcats got the ball after missing their own foul shots, saying how this "should not happen in any game."

Brittany Swanson said, "It was tough because at times we weren't there for each other as a team. We need to do the little things right if we want to win."

Weston hosts Pomperaug, the second ranked team in the Connecticut Sports Writers poll, tonight at 7 p.m.