WINDSOR, Conn. — Tilton's Brooke Golden had spent recent stretches of practice working with coach Tara Brisson on finishing her shots around the basket. Brisson wanted Golden to use the higher part of the corner on the white square of the backboard as a target so her shots would fall easier.
In the biggest moment of the NEPSAC season, Golden learned the lesson. On Tilton's final possession, the center caught a pass from Bela Cucuta in the mid-post and flipped up a hook shot. It grazed high on the backboard and fell with exactly one second remaining and lifted Tilton to a 68-66 Class AAA championship triumph over Nobles.
"I was thinking, Bela just gave me the most interesting pass of my life, and I can hear everyone counting down," Golden said. "I honestly just threw it up."
The championship is the first in the new era of girls AAA basketball and Tilton's first as a member of NEPSAC's top class. The Rams had lost in last year's championship to Nobles, and many doubted they'd have the pieces to make it back, let alone win.
MORE NEPSAC TITLES: AA — Worcester Academy | A — Loomis Chaffee | B — Rivers
"We have talent. We probably don't have the most talented team. I just have the best team," Brisson said. "So it feels incredible."
Tilton immediately put Nobles on its heels, opening with a 22-13 first quarter. One interesting wrinkle in the defense: Golden, a long-armed, 6-foot-3 center, drew the matchup against Nobles star 5-foot-7 point guard Christina Pham. It was a surprise change Golden didn't know about until near game time, but it helped confuse the Bulldogs.
"I don't think they expected it, and I think it made the other matchups be like, 'Oh no, what are we supposed to do?' And that's really all I wanted them to know," Brisson said. "We paid attention to the first film, and we understood who really hurt us and how, and we made some adjustments."
While the Rams worked to deter Nobles' elite scorers, their own took flight. Cucuta scored a game-high 22 points and Maddie McCaffery drained four 3-pointers en route to 16 points. McCaffery, filling in as a starter for the injured Lindsey Lemay, gave the offense new juice.
"What we were trying to do is just move them side to side, and get them in a lot of screening action, because they switch, so they would be disheveled," Brisson said. "And that worked in the first half."
Nobles gave its best shots. Star senior forwards Ashley Dinges (20 points) and Jasmyn Cooper (17 points) powered their ways to layups and putbacks. Brynn Bryant (11 points) drilled a 3 at the third-quarter buzzer to keep the Bulldogs within striking distance, down 58-50.
Even when Pham went down on a scary fall and bruised her head, the Bulldogs battled. Pham suffered the injury with 5:31 left in the contest and Nobles down 62-52. Cooper led a furious 14-4 charge to tie the game at 66, and Pham made her return minutes later.
But Brisson had said pregame that she felt oddly calm, and her team fought off every challenge with composure.
"I honestly don't really think I was looking at the scoreboard," Golden said. "As long as we were in front, we didn't care how far in front we were."
Throughout the season, Tilton has viewed itself as an underdog. The Rams, as a No. 3 seed, weren't supposed to thrash second-seeded Tabor by 22 points in the semifinals. They certainly weren't supposed to beat two-time reigning champ Nobles.
Brisson got emotional discussing the feeling of being at the mountaintop.
"It means that when I teach them about setting goals for themselves, never letting anything stand in the way of achieving that goal, it shows anything is possible," she said. "We did that today. So I feel like a million (expletive) bucks."
