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WILTON, Conn. The Wilton High girls basketball team suffered a huge setback to its playoff standing with easily its most frustrating loss of the season on Tuesday evening. The Warriors could not buy a basket against Darien, scoring a season low in a hair-pulling 33-28 loss and falling to fourth place in the conference standings.
Wilton managed all of eight points in the entire first half, despite a monster night of rebounding by Maddy Fulton and plenty of steals. The Warriors shot a paltry 14 percent from the field and could not shake their funk all night.
Erica Meyer pulled the Warriors to within two points in the fourth quarter. But Dariens Meg Marren soon iced any thoughts of a comeback with a short jumper.
The ball just didnt go in, said Wilton head coach Jaclyn Woitkowski. There are going to be those nights where nothing goes in the hole for you, and tonight was one of those nights.
With the outside shots not falling, Wilton tried to get to the free throw line by driving to the basket in an attempt to draw fouls. The only problem was that the referees seemed to have left their whistles at home.
Fulton was repeatedly hacked going to the basket, but her pleas for foul calls fell on deaf ears. Dariens defenders harassed Fulton all night, using three and sometimes four players to cover her in the paint in what the players called a crash defense.
Four different Warriors got onto the floor but were held scoreless. Wiltons best outside shooter, Casey Pearsall, was held to just three points.
They didnt give up though, and thats why I enjoy coaching, Woitkowski said. I dont think its such a bad thing, because theyre going into Fridays game and theyre going to be very, very mad coming off of this.
Wilton has now lost two of its last three games for the first time since December. Wilton faces another tough test to clinch its first conference playoff berth in nine years when it travels to undefeated Danbury on Friday for a 7 p.m. game.
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