The Windsor Warriors broke open a close game with a late second quarter surge to open a nine-point halftime edge and steadily added to the advantage over the second half to defeat #2 seed Northwest Catholic 66-52 to claim their first CCC Tournament Championship since 2007.
Senior Ayanna Franks hit the 2,000th point of her career with time running down in the half. She went on to finish the game with 13 points and run her career scoring mark to 2,004. Transfer Kamaria Bowens had 19 and Mikaela Williams scored 17 to anchor a balanced Warrior scoring attack.
The two teams battled closely through the first quarter and a half before the Warriors went on a 14-5 run to close the half. Northwest Catholic stayed even for much of the second half but was never able to overcome the deficit as the Warriors countered every attempt at a run by the Lions. With high scoring Abigail Casper was sidelined by injury in the third quarter and the Lions were not able to find the scoring punch needed to close the deficit. Casper had 16 points and Maeve Stanton led the Lions with 18.
Windsor was the 12 seed in the tournament and became the lowest seeded team ever to win the title. The Warriors went through three of the state’s top ten ranked teams to earn the championship with wins over Newington, Conard and Northwest Catholic. Windsor opened the tournament with a victory over E.O. Smith.
Northwest Catholic was the #2 seed in the tournament and reached the finals by defeating Manchester, Rocky Hill and defending champion Simsbury.
Windsor won the CCC’s inauguaral Girls Basketball Tournament by defeating Fermi in 2007 but had not appeared in the finals since. The Warriors ended the tournament on a nine-game win streak after struggling through the early weeks of the season.
Girls’ Basketball:
First Round – 2/15/24 (Higher Seed)
#1 Conard 46, #16 Southingtion 41
#2 NW Catholic 65, #15 Manchester 43
#3 Simsbury 53, #14 Farmington 35
#4 Newington 48, #13 Enfield 30
#12 Windsor 65, #5 EO Smith 46
#11 Berlin 52, #6 Glastonbury 48
#7 Middletown 50, #10 East Catholic 48
#9 Rocky Hill 57, #8 Bristol Eastern 49
Quarterfinals – 2/17/24 (Plainville High School)
#1 Conard 63, Rocky Hill 41
#12 Windsor 51, #4 Newington 33
#3 Simsbury 47, Berlin 33
#2 NW Catholic 64 Rocky Hill 49
Semifinals – 2/20/24 (U Hart)
#2 NW Catholic 39, #3 Simsbury 28
#12 Windsor 49, #1 Conard 39
Finals – 2/22/24 (U Hart)
#12 Windsor 66, #2 NW Catholic 52
| First Round (2/15/24) | Visitor | Home | Location/Time | |||
| Game #1 | #16 | Southington | @ | #1 | Conard | Conard HS-6:45PM |
| Game #2 | #15 | Manchester | @ | #2 | NW Catholic | NW Catholic HS-6:45PM |
| Game #3 | #14 | Farmington | @ | #3 | Simsbury | Simsbury HS-6PM |
| Game #4 | #13 | Enfield | @ | #4 | Newington | Newington HS-5:30PM |
| Game #5 | #12 | Windsor | @ | #5 | E.O. Smith | EO Smith HS-6PM |
| Game #6 | #11 | Berlin | @ | #6 | Glastonbury | Glastonbury HS-5:30PM |
| Game #7 | #10 | East Catholic | @ | #7 | Middletown | Middletown HS-6:45PM |
| Game #8 | #9 | Rocky Hill | @ | #8 | Bristol Eastern | Bristol Eastern HS-6PM |
