Wahconah Girls Give Coach 100th Win at School
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. -- On a night when Wahconah's Liz Kay reached a coaching milestone, she admitted that the game is still teaching her some things.
"I'm learning that practice is overrated," Kay said "And that I'm not that important.
"I'm the person who scouts someone three times before we play them. And now it's like, 'Let's just play as many games as we possibly can.' We've had two practices in the last two weeks, and I don't care. I just want to be able to play games."
And win games.
Monday's 56-10 win over Monument Mountain gave Wahconah an 8-0 record and gave Kay 100 wins in her tenure at the Dalton school.
Maria Gamberoni scored 14 points and recorded six steals, and Grace Wigington added nine.
Ten different Wahconah players made a mark in the scorebook.
Wahconah put the game out of reach early, going on a 27-0 run that spanned the first and second quarters.
Some of the toughest points came early in that stretch, when Olivia Gamberoni pulled down three straight offensive rebounds to extend a possession that ended with Wigington's jumper from the right wing to make it 8-2.
Wigington ended the first quarter with seven points.
"She's a scorer," Kay said of the freshman. "She's getting used to our system. She's playing a lot better defense. She's going to be a really good player who gets to learn from some really good kids above her."
Wahconah started the second quarter with four buckets in four possessions -- three scores in transition and a 3-pointer from senior Noelle Furlong.
Monument Mountain was led by Abby Dohoney with six points.
After the game, Kay's team honored her milestone by giving her a basketball signed by all the players.
It was a more modest celebration than the team's other milestone this winter, the 1,000th-point game for Maria Gamberoni in the season opener.
"The brightest spot of the season, obviously, was Maria getting her 1,000th," Kay said. "At a time when you need bright spots, that really was the brightest. And, honestly, you just hope you're playing the next day.
"It's such a strange sense of urgency. High school kids can easily take things for granted and move on, and they look back after high school and say, 'Where did it go?' Then you get a year like this, and they actually get upset if there's a snowstorm, because they can't practice. They just want to be in the gym and be with each other.
"They can't take those things for granted in ways that every other high school kid forever has been able to do. That's been really cool to watch."