Shorthanded Lady Wreckers lose to Danbury

The shorthanded Staples girls basketball team had a chance of pulling off the monumental upset Tuesday, but fell short.

Staples was missing senior starter Sydney Houseworth, who is a scrappy rebounder and defender, and freshman Josie Fair, its first substitute off the bench, because of injuries. Moreover, host Danbury was too much for the Lady Wreckers and remained undefeated with a 45-35 victory. The win was the 399th in the distinguished career of Danbury coach Jackie DiNardo, who will be going for No. 400 when the Lady Hatters host Wilton tonight.

Danbury improved to 17-0, 15-0 in the FCIAC, while the Staples dropped to 10-7, 9-6.

"I knew this was going to be a game," DiNardo said. "This is what we need, we need teams like that to push us like that to get us ready for the next step."

Sophomore twins Rachel and Rebecca Gartner led the Lady Hatters with 14 points apiece, followed by senior Casey Smith with 13 points. Senior Jess Coelho led the Lady Wreckers with 13 points and junior Nikki Bukovsky scored 12.

A 7-0 Danbury run late in the second quarter opened a seven-point halftime lead for the Lady Hatters.

"The 7-0 run that Danbury had right before the end of the first half was significant, and I thought we turned the ball over too many times in the third quarter," Staples coach Ed Huydic said. "It was too much ground to make up."

Danbury took full advantage of those turnovers and held Staples to only five points in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, however, Staples made the game a bit more interesting when a huge 3-pointer from Bukovsky cut Danbury's lead to five.

"We made a real good run in the fourth, I was proud of them for that," Huydic said. "The overall energy and overall effort was very good."