Hillhouse Girls Capture Basketball Championship

UNCASVILLE, CT - When Hillhouse senior Tyree Allen went down with an ankle injury less than two minutes into the game, she saw her whole career flash before her very eyes.

The point guard returned to the court, however, scoring eight of her 11 points in the second half and leading the fourth-seeded Academics to a 39-34 win over 19th-seeded Daniel Hand in the CIAC Class M championship game at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Saturday night.

It was Allen's 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter that snapped a 29-29 tie and gave the Academics the lead for good.

"I knew I had to make it back," Allen said. "There was no way I was going to sit down and watch my team. I knew I had to fight through it. Throughout the game, it was hurting, but I knew we had to get the job done and I had to be one of the leaders out there to do it."

Hillhouse coach Catrina Hawley-Stewart said of Allen, "She's been fighting for four years. I knew no matter what she was coming back. She could have broken it and she would have come back."

Tanayja London led Hillhouse (22-3) with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Allen also had six rebounds, three steals, two blocks and two assists for the Academics.

For Daniel Hand (13-12), Sara Wohlgemuth and Julia Kuhn had 12 points each. Summer Adams hauled down 12 rebounds while Anna Beccia had a game-high four assists.

Hillhouse had defeated Hand twice on the regular season, 59-49 and 56-50.

Hillhouse raced out to a 14-0 lead to open the game. Hand finally notched its first point on Wohlgemuth's foul shot with 3:12 left in the quarter.

"You knew they (the Academics) were going to come out swinging and we took a shot in the mouth in a pretty big way," Hand coach Tim Tredwell said. "When Sara hit that free throw, we joked that we're not going to get shut out, so we're good."

Wohlgemuth later added the Tigers' first field goal, draining a 3-pointer with 2:11 left in the quarter to make it 16-6, a score that stood until the end of the stanza.

The Tigers cut the lead to 16-11 early in the second quarter, but couldn't net another field goal over the last five minutes of play as the Academics took a 21-12 lead into intermission.

"To keep them under 40 points is amazing, but for them to keep us under 40 points is amazing, as well," Hawley-Stewart said.

Story reported by John Nash