Fairfield Warde girls basketball coach Dave Danko took advantage of his bye tonight to scout Stamford High School’s game at Fairfield Ludlowe. He was pretty impressed by what he witnessed.
Informed that Stamford star Fiona O’Dwyer had put up a career-high 33 points as she was removed from the game in the closing minutes, Danko looked at Daphne Elliott and Sabrina Siciliano, his two star players, and said, “That’s the best player we’ve seen all year.”
What made the performance by O’Dwyer, a 5-foot-10 senior, all the more impressive was the manner in which it was accomplished. O’Dwyer was not trying to carry the team or looking to put up big numbers. Quite the contrary. Her scoring came within the normal flow of the Black Knights’ offense. She looked for open teammates and often passed up open shots.
O’Dwyer’s points came in all aspects: 3-point shots, post-up moves, putbacks and drives. Stamford coach Curtis Tinnin was genuinely shocked after the game when told of his star player’s point total because this came in a game in which the Black Knights did not run up the score.
And O’Dwyer dominated in other aspects: she rebounded, chased down loose balls and played relentless defense.
Tonight also proved the Black Knights, in a down year in which after Warde there are a number of teams that appear bunched up, are as good as their 8-1 record and a legitimate threat to get to the FCIAC championship game.
Besides having a go-to player in O’Dwyer, Stamford is one of the league’s best defensive teams. It held Ludlowe, which is far from a cellar-dweller, to just one field goal during a 19-minute span, and to just three points for the first 14:30 of the second half.
With few dominant players in the league this year, the ability to play good defense is an even greater weapon, and the Black Knights really get at it on the court.
And most nights Stamford does not need O’Dwyer to carry the team, though she is capable of doing it. Tonight Katie Pape was Stamford’s next highest scorer with just 5 points. But Pape and Lauren Beluk, who had 3 points, are also four-year starters and part of an ensemble in which several players are capable of putting up double figures on a given night.
Blend it all together and this is the Black Knights’ best team in years and one that rightfully has its sights set on getting to the FCIAC final and, if the season plays out as expected, taking its best shot at Warde.
If the Black Knights were to go on and shock the conference by winning their first title since 1979, Danko will not be the only one impressed.
