LaBrae rallies past Hubbard

The Vikings pulled out a 52-44 win in the final quarter.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

HUBBARD — LaBrae High outscored Hubbard 10-2 in the final four minutes of its 52-44 Trumbull Athletic Conference girls basketball victory Monday night over the Eagles.

The Vikings (10-7, 7-4 TAC) held a 17-5 advantage in the final quarter, including a 9-for-11 performance at the free throw line, rallying from a 39-35 deficit at the third-period buzzer.

A bucket by Bayle Boggs, one of four double-figures scorers for LaBrae, tied the score at 42 just over a minute into the last quarter. The teams then combined to miss nine consecutive shots before Boggs assisted on a hoop by Anna Bumgardner, who scored a game-high 13 points, with 3:58 showing on the clock.

Boggs, who finished with 10 rebounds, grabbed a miss on Hubbard’s next possession, then LaBrae’s Angelica Pugh make two free throws a the 3:10 mark.

Boggs got another defensive rebound, then dished out her eighth assist, another feed to Bumgardner, to make the score 48-42 with 2:01 remaining.

Hubbard (9-8, 7-4) had two turnovers and a missed shot on its next three possessions and LaBrae made four of six free throws down the stretch.

The contest was close throughout.

Before the final two minutes, the largest lead was LaBrae’s 24-18 halftime advantage.

Both teams are young — the teams have just five seniors among them — but have been able to put together decent seasons.

LaBrae coach Lisa Aldridge, whose only seniors are guards Pugh and Allie Polomsky, talked about the fact the Vikings have a chance to finish above .500.

“Commitment, dedication and being respectable, whatever you want to call being respectable,” she said.

“I told the girls this was a rebuilding year for them. They’ve had a lot of losing seasons prior to this and we were going to go out and do the best job we could and see what happens. So it was about rebuilding, but we wanted to be respectable. We set some small goals and we’ve obtained a lot of them.

“Our seniors have been great. I can’t say enough about Allie Polomsky. Angelica Pugh is our go-to girl, and everyone has known that all season. But Allie Polomsky is our floor leader and when she’s not in the game you can tell. Both seniors have played major roles. We knew to have a good season our seniors had to step up and play well.”

Boggs added 12 points, Angelica Pugh scored 11 and Courtney Aldridge had 10.

Guard Abbie Deluco and forwards Sarah DeJulio and Kylee Sharisky are Hubbard’s seniors.

The young Eagles also have a chance for a .500 season and probably will finish in the upper half of the TAC.

“That was one of our goals, to compete in the league,” coach Ross Stoffer said.

Sophomore Paige Seech led Hubbard with 10 points and Deluco scored nine, along with dishing out six assists.

Undersized (5-foot-6) junior Michele Starkey was active on the boards with nine rebounds to go with three assists, five steals and two blocked shots.

“Tonight you have to give credit to LaBrae,” Stoffer said.

“They had good balanced scoring. Angelica Pugh often scores more than 20 points and tonight she has 11 but they have three others in double digits. They got to the foul line, they were 18-of-27, and the first time we played them (a 50-39 Hubbard victory) they were 11-of-27. That makes a big difference.

“We missed some layups, they were able to get offensive rebounds and they got to the foul line and made their free throws. That’s how you win close games on the road.”