NFA girls basketball secures first win of the season, after six straight losses
NORWICH ― After opening the 2022-23 season with six straight losses, the Norwich Free Academy girls basketball team finally got to smile on Thursday night.
The Wildcats sprinted to a huge first quarter lead and held off Windham, 58-39, at Alumni Gymnasium in Norwich.
“It feels amazing,” NFA junior forward Brooke Bolles said. “We’ve been working all year for this. We’re so happy.”
Bolles scored eight of her 12 points in the third quarter after the Whippets rallied from a 19-point deficit to get within 32-23. Bolles also added a pair of blocked shots.
Wildcats sophomore center Emily Orcutt poured in a game-high 17 points, while sophomore guard Brooke Stringer and junior guard Naiaya Stone chipped in nine points apiece in NFA’s first win of the season.
“I hope this will catapult a little bit more confidence and what they're capable of because despite the record we are much better than what the record shows,” NFA coach Courtney Gomez said. “I believe that and I know that maybe they weren't feeling that for a while, but they stayed true to what we do and they proved themselves tonight. So it was nice.”
“We’ve been competing for the last two years trying to get this feeling back again,” NFA senior co-captain Aislinn Richmond said. “It’s amazing, especially as a senior captain, to see us go through such hardships and battle through it and to see a good outcome. I'm just hoping this season we can keep competing and finish out strong.”
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NFA has a winning coach in Gomez
Gomez is synonymous with winning. A former Wildcat all-state guard who was part of two state championship teams (2001 and 2002), she guided the Wildcats to back-to-back Eastern Connecticut Conference championships in her first two seasons at the helm.
Last year, however, the program took a big step back by going 3-19. And losses against Hand, Fitch, Newtown, Middletown, Mercy and New London to start this season gave the Wildcats just three wins in their last 28 contests.
“It can be really hard as a team to just keep facing loss after loss after loss and it can be easy to kind of let it derail you a little bit and start making excuses but they don’t,” Gomez said. “That’s the one thing about this team. They’ve taken hit after hit and every time the next day in practice they come back ready for work.”
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The Wildcats 0-6 start came against some of the top teams in the state.
“It wasn't demoralizing because honestly, we’re not focused on wins and losses,” Richmond said. “We are mostly focused on who we are as players and as a team. We could lose a million games and we’ll still come out the next day trying and that’s the most important thing for us.”
Gomez saw great progress by the end of last season. In March, the players began working towards this season by getting in the weight room, running hills during the summer, and joining AAU teams.
“The record last year? Some people could have used it to say, ‘Alright well, I’m going somewhere else or I’m going to do this.’ But these kids decided OK, what are we going to do to get better and how are we going to erase that and they got in the weight room and they did it," Gomez said. "Granted, it took us six games to actually get a W in the win-loss column but we have been getting little wins every single day that to the outside world might not look like we’re doing well, but to all of us, and that’s really the only thing that matters, we’re fine.”
Richmond shares captain duties with senior Julia Barry. Junior Nevaeh Yorke is back at point guard, while junior guard Jordan Fabry gives the Wildcats some depth off the bench. The Wildcats varsity lineup against Windham also included juniors Amanda Bink and Willow Ludlow, sophomores Emily Ye and Leeya Fabry, and freshman center Petra Berry.
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“The difference this season is being competitive and just the energy within us,” Richmond said. “We’re all friends and family. We just love each other and love being around each other. We’re hungry and ready to win.”
Against Windham, the Wildcats’ aggressive, trapping defense limited the Whippets’ shots and forced numerous turnovers, giving NFA a 22-3 lead after one quarter.
“Tonight we took the emphasis off making baskets because we’ve been having some trouble scoring,” Gomez said. “We put the emphasis on what am I going to do, whether it be a deflection, a rebound, a great defensive play, diving on the floor for the loose ball, an assist. Whatever it is that fills up the stat sheet other than scoring to help our team. And if we can all do that and be locked into that, then the points will start to go our way. When it did in the first quarter I think it kind of let them release some pressure. It was just really nice to watch them have fun playing.”
“We started a little slow but we’re coming back and we’re ready to win,” Bolles said. “We don’t give up. We’re the grittiest team out here.”
This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: NFA girls basketball earns first win of season against Windham
