As the North Branford girls’ basketball team welcomed a steady crop of varsity newcomers to its starting lineup, the T-Birds knew it would take time for the pieces of the puzzle to mesh together, yet fortunately, the squad solved it swiftly and coalesced at the most opportune time to go on a lengthy and memorable postseason run.

Entering the winter following graduating five seniors from a season ago, the T-Birds were ready to get to know each other both on and off the floor. Through the growing pains and lessons, North Branford finished off the regular season with an 8-12 record to qualify for not only the Shoreline Conference Tournament but also the Class S State Tournament draw.

In the league bracket, North Branford saw an 83-55 quarterfinal round loss to No. 2 seed Valley Regional as the 7th-ranked club. But it turned out that the second postseason phase in states had a lot more excitement in store for Head Coach Sabrina LeMere’s squad.

As the No. 22 seed in Class S, North Branford first traveled to No. 11-ranked Stafford on March 1 and emerged with a 67-57 first-round road win. The T-Birds continued to bust the bracket by then dispatching 6th-seeded Lyman Memorial, 58-53, on March 3. The fun run would conclude, though, in the quarterfinals on March 8 with a 74-36 defeat at the hands of No. 3 Somers as the dust settled to the tune of a 10-14 overall mark for North Branford.

“This year, we had three new junior starters, a new senior starter, and two new freshmen, so we had a lot of new people at the varsity level that we had to learn how to work with,” said LeMere. “We also wanted to develop confidence on the court; the girls know the game, but we wanted them to portray skills on the court and be successful as a team. Watching them from the beginning of the year until the end, the amount of growth they underwent was huge. We had growth and lulls, but no one held negativity within them. Seeing the growth we had in states, we ended on a high note.”

Of course with a squad full of fresh faces, court cohesion does not come in the blink of an eye or swiftness of a crisp pass of the ball. Yet LeMere and the T-Birds began to become a formidable and fiery unit at just the right time behind full-on dedication through all peaks and valleys.

“Towards the end of the season, we started to jell, and the state quarterfinal run was great,” LeMere said. “The amount of work they put in to get that far was great; it was a lot of hard work and practice. There were ups and downs, but they found momentum at the end. Once the tournament starts, everyone is 0-0. A highlight of this year also was just how the girls grew in general, and they really put in the work day and night.”

No connections on the court come without cementing a sorority amongst the girls off of it, and the T-Birds stormed through any of those social exercises with such proficiency and enjoyment that they craved more of those moments and, even more so, demanded them.

“They had to get to know each other, so the coaches organized team events,” said LeMere. “We also had practices where we talked about mental health. To then see them asking for more team events really showed how much the team grew. They were able to find joy in everything we did, and it brought them together.”

Junior captain Keana Criscuolo was an All-Shoreline Conference First Team selection, as she finished the year with a team-tops 19 points per game to go along with 5.9 assists, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.8 steals per game. Fellow junior Callie Holzer joined her on that same conference squad as an Honorable Mention.

Sharing the captain duties with Criscuolo was the lone senior on this year’s roster in Tessa Juniver. LeMere praised Juniver for her steadfast and everlasting dedication to the sport, especially on the defensive front, while she added how both captains served as a perfect extension of the coaching staff.

“Tessa has been a dedicated player since she was little. Through her high school journey, she was a voice on the JV team,” Coach LeMere said. “With the composure she had and her ability to shake off any negativity, the girls looked up to her. On the court, she was a huge part of the rebounding and defensive sides of things, and she will be missed. Keana was our main scorer offensively. She has grown so much; she is very vocal and gets the group ready to go. She wants to win, has that fire in her eyes, and we are glad to have her back next year.”

Speaking of North Branford’s next squad, the future prospects for the T-Birds have them primed for an even deeper postseason presence in March, with many girls now familiar with the system and each other, returning to the fold after an enjoyable season LeMere and the girls will never forget.

“Next year, we will be pretty solid; this year we had to find the chemistry, but we have all the girls except one coming back,” said LeMere. “We will be returning four of our five starters, and we should be able to pick up where we left off this year. As long as we come into next season ready, we will have a solid season. I loved coming to practice every day this year, and I know they did, too. This season was so much fun; we were a small team but one that was dedicated and focused.”

On the regular season, North Branford scored wins over Branford (55-48), Morgan (50-44), Westbrook (62-15), Hale-Ray (58-26), Old Saybrook (58-47), Old Lyme (61-40), Portland (59-28), and Haddam-Killingworth (62-56). The T-Birds losses came against East Haven (56-42), Valley Regional (67-54 and 73-56), Cromwell (58-44 and 62-46), Granby (55-48), East Hampton (63-39 and 76-41), Fitch (73-37), Coginchaug (52-39), H-K (75-63), and Morgan (49-45).

The North Branford program roster was comprised of senior Juniver; juniors Holzer, Nicole Timario, Criscuolo, Natalia Lucibello; sophomores of Makaila Amin, Alexa DeFrancesco, Gabriella Bigio, Mary Brown, Leslie Marcano; and finally, freshmen in Emma Preiss, Madison DiStefano, MaKayla Brown, Skylar Gage, Alyssa Marino, and Terasa Comfort.