Sacred Heart vs St. Luke's

exquisite girls basketball in Greenwich CT

Sacred Heart Greenwich sits perched, like a brick birthday cake, on a sturdy plateau in Connecticut’s toniest zip code. In the carpeted gym hallway, a dozen squash players goggle up for practice. What might one expect to find in the gym? A British tea party? Fencing?

What one does find is two high school girl basketball teams warming up. (No, they’re not wearing white gloves.) A couple dozen parents and some elementary kids in the stands. One might be inclined to think we’re in for a sleepy affair. One would be mistaken.

The Sacred Heart coach, Ayo Hart, a dynamo of energy and focus, gathers her team into a huddle and yells “What time is it?”. Like Whitman unleashing his barbaric yawp over America, the team yells back “game time!” and whatever we thought we knew about this situation gets shattered like a glass of Zinfandel dropped on a bluestone patio.

The basketball leaves the referee’s hand for the tip, and it’s on. St. Luke’s, the visiting squad, presses relentlessly. A swarm of arms and sliding feet. Sacred Heart presses right back. The pace is blistering. St. Luke’s, the favorite in this contest and one of the top teams in New England, surges ahead 10 to 3 with 3 minutes and 53 seconds left in the first quarter.

When Sacred Heart breaks the press, it is with precise, clockwork passing: inbound to baseline, pass to top of the key, hitting a cutting guard in stride at midcourt, who dribbles up the right side and fires a dime to the big on the block for a deuce.

Sacred Heart goes man-to-man to switch things up. “Get there,” Coach Hart yells. Sacred Heart clogs the paint with two girls over six feet, Kaitlin Robinson and Olivia Caponti. As St. Luke’s works the ball around the perimeter, it finds the hands of Ava Sollene, a deadly shooter, who rises and drains a three-ball from the corner. Both teams play with tempo, the ball zipping up and down the court. The level of play here is equal to the highest echelon of Westchester’s Section One; think Ursuline, Magnus.

“We have to get younger refs for the girls,” a parent behind me says. And one feels for the refs, both well north of fifty, struggling to keep up with these speed demons. Sacred Heart is led by a trio of talented guards. Junior Madison Hart and sophomore Eva Wilkerson bring Lightning quick speed, tenacity, and grit. And six-foot junior Payton Sfreddo brings an cold-blooded shooter’s mentality, mixed with grace. Hart is explosive to the ball and a relentless defender. Wilkerson has an incredibly low center of gravity on her dribble. At six-feet and with a handle and long arms, Sfreddo can score from seemingly anywhere.

St. Luke’s is led by senior Mackenzie Nelson, a Top-20 Virginia Tech commit, able to slash to the rim at will. She nabs a steal and races down the left side of the court. She’s going one-on-one against Payton. The two are very familiar with each other from their years with the Empire Blue Flames AAU program. Payton has the height and the length in this showdown, but Mackenzie has the speed and perhaps pedigree. Mackenzie goes up, extends—Payton blocks the shot as it floats above Mackenzie‘s head. The ball spins into the air about 6 inches. Payton snatches it and goes the other way. Truly a remarkable block against one of the best players in the Tri-state area, (a 93 Scouts rating on ESPN). Payton zooms up the center of the court, hits a big, who doesn’t connect in traffic, but Sacred Heart gets the offensive rebound and kicks it out to Eva on the left wing whose three ball hits nothing but net. At the other end, Nelson goes right to the rim and finishes, as if to recalibrate. 21 to 15 St. Luke’s after one, a high scoring quarter

During the short break, the players must’ve gotten cold water on their fingertips while re-hydrating, because both teams are off in the second quarter. Neither team scores for the first 4 minutes and 15 seconds. This may also be due to the fact that the game is getting increasingly physical: collisions, subtle forearms, loose ball scrums, inadvertent trips.

Greenwich may be to squash what Brazil is to soccer, but, for ninety minutes on the second day of February, Greenwich is also the home to some of the best, most intense girls high school basketball being played in America.

Cam Nelson—Mackenzie’s little sister, also with D1 offers— tucks the ball to her stomach, like a running back, and slices to the rim through two six-footers. She is met on the block by a defender who has slid over to try and draw a charge. A huge collision, which spins Nelson around, so her back is now to the basket. She throws the ball up with both hands over her head. No call by the referee. St Luke’s parents are astonished. I don’t blame them.

Payton heats up and scores all seven Sacred Heart points, including drives to the right and the left, where she finishes with both hands. Payton is a D1 lacrosse commit to UVA, but could play high-level D1 basketball if she wanted. Choices, choices.

St. Luke’s has been held to four points in the quarter. Probably one of their lowest scoring quarters of the year. At intermission, it’s 23-22 St. Luke’s. Sacred Heart has to feel good. They lost by double digits last time the two teams met. Sacred Heart is having a very solid season, but St. Luke’s is the gold standard of NEPSAC basketball.

In the second half, Sacred Heart goes in front briefly on a bucket by Payton, but then St. Luke’s re-takes the lead with Mackenzie Nelson finishing at the rim. St. Luke’s turns up the defensive intensity another notch. They’re not pressing full court anymore; instead they’re consolidating the pressure to the front court. With situational trapping, St. Luke’s creates a lot of mayhem between the halfcourt line and the three-point line. I entered the gym thinking of the Nelson sisters as more finesse players, which they are, but they can also mix it up when things get chippy. Sacred Heart is battling, but they need to protect the basketball better against the blistering pressure. The refs are letting a lot go: a forearm chop across the arm of a Sacred Heart dribbler, who St. Luke’s has quickly double teamed.

One gets the sense that Mackenzie Nelson could get to the rim on any play she wants. She has a combination of speed, length, height, agility, skill, and craftiness. But her biggest strength may be her mind, the way she reads the court and processes and then acts.

Holy smokes, it’s getting physical. Wilkerson gets knocked to the ground in a scrum. It’s the kind of thing that happens in a tie-up sometimes: a St. Luke’s player nudges her back to the floor, as she gets up. The coaches seem to discuss the contact. Both teams are getting very physical, and you wonder if the referee will issue a flagrant, or a double technical, to cool things off. Lots of pushing and incidental contact on loose balls.

“Who’s calling this game? Her or you?” a St. Luke’s dad yells at the ref, implying that the official is succumbing to the influence of coach Hart. The ref stops the game and speaks to the Sacred Heart AD. Instead of throwing the parent out, or issuing a stern warning, the Sacred Heart AD does something very smart and graceful; she calmy sits next to the fan and talks quietly for a minute and then remains next to the fan for the rest of the game. It’s a very holistic and effective way to lower the temperature in the room. You feel for the refs. This is not an easy game to officiate: the players are fast and talented and zooming in all directions. Once a game gets super physical, it’s hard to put that genie back in the bottle. Of course, the referees are the ones who are tasked with keeping the genie in the bottle in the first place.

St. Luke’s has a seven-point lead, 31-24, when their coach gets hit with a technical. Sacred Heart hits both free throws and cuts it to 31-26. The teams trade buckets and it’s 33-28 after three quarters. The third quarter was another low scoring affair, 10-6 St. Luke’s. The low score and grind it out battle probably favors Sacred Heart, but can they generate enough offense against the frenetic St. Luke’s halfcourt pressure?

Sacred Heart has the height advantage, but they’re having a hard time exploiting it. Every bucket feels like a mini-battle. After a jumper by Payton on a sweet dish from Madison, it’s 35-32 St. Luke’s, with 6:30 left. But Mackenzie finishes at the rim. Sacred Heart is a fantastic defensive team: a great mix of speed, height, and tenacity, but Nelson is on another level. Madison Hart drives into the teeth of the St. Luke’s defense and hits a ten-footer. Eva Wilkerson converts a drive. Sacred Heart is still within striking distance.

Big sister Mackenzie drives into the paint and draws some attention, then hits little sister Cam on the three-point line for a swish. Sacred Heart just keeps counter punching, cutting the lead back to six. With a little over two minutes left, Mackenzie launches a deep bomb from the right wing, eight feet behind the three-point line. She turns to trot back on defense an instant before the ball kisses the net—she just knew. St. Luke’s ultimately wins 47-40. A great, spirited game of high school hoops between two very strong teams with a at least a handful of girls who will play college basketball, and other girls who will play Division One in a different sport.

Greenwich is known for many things, and now that list includes outstanding girls basketball.