By Andy Hutchison

RIDGEFIELD–Staples girls basketball locked up the FCIAC Tournament’s No. 2 seed with a regular season-ending 54-44 victory at Ridgefield on Wednesday.

The Wreckers will host a quarterfinal game om Saturday, Feb. 28 at noon. The Wreckers could have a rematch with Ridgefield but also might face one of several other foes as a logjam of teams play out the regular slate tonight.

Four teams are jockeying for the four through eight spots in the FCIAC playoffs: Danbury and St. Joseph are both 10-4, both with a game to play. Fairfield Warde and Ridgefield are finished at 10-5. Stamford is 9-5, with one more contest. 

Staples and Trumbull both finished 13-2 but the Wreckers won the head-to-head tiebreaker leaving the Eagles as the third seed. The top seed is 14-1 Greenwich.

In the win over Ridgefield, Staples led 13-10 after one quarter and 30-21 at halftime before the Tigers closed the gap to 38-36 Staples heading to the fourth. The Wreckers put things away in the final stanza.

Freya Harvey collected 12 points, eight of her team’s 17 steals, four rebounds and a pair of assists.

Marley Belzer had 10 points, two assists and a steal. Addie Talbott dropped in nine points and had five assists, seven rebounds and four steals.

Emma Asiel and Sadie Katzner both contributed eight points with Asiel grabbing three rebounds and Katzner adding a pair of assists. Chloe Smith had five points, five rebounds and two assists along with a steal.

Following Saturday’s playoff opener, the quarterfinals have been moved to neutral site Fairfield Ludlowe Monday as snow has altered the late-season and postseason schedules. The title game remains set to be played on Wednesday March 4 at Fairfield University at 5:30 p.m.

Andy Hutchison

^{_{Andy Hutchison has been covering school sports — including Staples athletics — as well as news and feature stories, since the 1990s. He is the sports editor at the Newtown Bee. He writes for the Monroe Sun. He was director of communications and radio color commentator for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (now Islanders) hockey team. He has won numerous writing awards, including regional and national first-place honors.}}