On Saturday Mar. 17, the Hall Girls Basketball team played Mercy High School at Mohegan Sun Arena in Montville, CT. Despite a valiant effort, the team came up short with a loss of 12 points.

The last time Hall went to the state championship was in 1977 and lost to Lee High School in New Haven by 2 points. The final score was 37-35. They couldn’t sink a last second shot, ending Hall’s undefeated season.

This season, the Hall girls team, led by senior captains Lexi Gellerman, Amber Raisner, and Maddy Mandyck, had a solid record of 24 wins and 5 losses. With Coach Brittany Huggins going on her second year of coaching varsity, many people didn’t think Hall would make it far in the tournament, nevermind the championship. In past years the team was not as strong and with injuries and coaches being switched the team had not come together like it did this season.

When asked about his thoughts on the game, Athletic Director Jason Siegal said, “I’m so happy for them, the kids and the coaches, they’ve worked so hard to get to this point, and I think every kid’s dream is to be able to play in a state championship game in high school and know their dream is becoming a reality.”

When asked what she thought of Mercy as a team, Zandra Smith, Security Guard and Superfan, said “I really [don’t] know much about Mercy’s team, but I believe in Hall High and I believe in my girls and I know they can do it ‘cause all they gotta do is put their mind to it.” The team has worked from the summer with conditioning and played together in a fall basketball league all the way up to the season. The players feel like they deserve the win due to all the hard work they put in. Sophomore Liv Bonee said, “We’ve been competing, we’ve fought back and I think that winning this game would mean a lot to us.”

Mercy High School, located in Middletown, CT has been strong in past years and ended this season with a record of  24 wins and 1 loss. They lost to Career Magnet, in New Haven, CT by 8 points. Going into the game, they were very confident and had won a Final in the past.

With 2 fan buses full of kids and many packed cars of students and families, everyone was ready to watch a good fight for the title. In the stands, there was a sea of blue and a sea of white divided between each side. The Hall fan section, Blue Reign, along with all Hall fans were in solidarity with their team by wearing blue and cheering them on as the game made way.

Hall’s strategy for the game was as Hall senior Amber Raisner said, “We have to take away their [Mercy’s] strengths.” Their main goal was to simply “Play Hall Basketball” as senior captain Lexi Gellerman said.

The starters to kick off things off were Lexi Gellerman , Amber Raisner, Maddy Mandyck, Jenna Zydanowicz (sophomore), and Liv Bonee (sophomore). As the game went underway, Hall struck blood first in the first minute and Mercy answered back. With a quick substitution in the first with Liv Deslauriers (sophomore) Hall played good defense and kept up with the pace of the game. At the end of the first quarter the score was 9-8 with Hall in the lead.

As the second quarter started off, Blue Reign Leader, Cole Duzan, called out chants in support of the team. The score stayed close for most of the quarter as both teams were putting up a good fight. With 2 minutes left in the second, freshman, Jordan Farrell, came in. As the buzzer sounded, Mercy lead by 4 points as the scoreboard read, 22-26.

The teams marched back onto the court to battle out the last half of the game. Throughout the game, Mercy had been out rebounding Hall and began to pull away from Hall in the 3rd. Hall didn’t make much progress with a third quarter score of 26-34. Mercy extended their lead throughout the fourth as Hall tried to make their way back into the game. With 25 seconds left, the seniors came out of the game and were met with hugs and high fives from all teammates and coaches on the sidelines. The final score was 37-49 to make Mercy the number 1 team in the state. Hall came up short but put in a valiant effort and never gave up.

At the end of the game, the Hall girls showed terrific sportsmanship and shook hands with all the players. When asked what could have been the downfall for the team both seniors, Amber Rasiner and Lexi Gellerman, were in agreement that they had been outrounded throughout the game. “I think it was very difficult to box out Meghan, the six foot girl and it was difficult to have Jenna guarding Bella, their point guard, who just got Gatorade Player of the Year for Connecticut because she [Jenna] is 6 inches shorter than Bella […]and Bella’s a good rebounder, [it was hard] for us to help out with that,” said Raisner. The players felt that Coach Brittany Huggins had prepared them very well the game but it just wasn’t their night as well as their shots not dropping.

Despite the loss, the team still had an outstanding season, only losing a few games and making it all the way to the finals. “Looking back on the season, like the road to get there, and like the teams that we’ve played, to make it that far was impressive.” Gellerman responded when asked about the season as a whole, “No one really respected us as a team or thought we would even be going to Mohegan so that was impressive in and of itself. In the locker room we were really proud of each other, sad, but really proud of each other.”

As their high school careers ended, the seniors look forward to their futures in college. All 3 seniors will continue on with basketball in college. Amber Raisner will be attending Union College, Lexi Gellerman will be attending Endicott College, and Maddy Mandyck will be attending Williams College in the fall. For the rest of the Hall Warriors we will all have to wait and see what next years season brings.