Date: Fri 23-Feb-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Ali-Giannini-Returns

Full Text:

The Return Of Ali Giannini

B Y K IM J. H ARMON

It was one game among many, one loss among seven, but after the Newtown High

School girls' basketball team lost, 64-53, to New Milford last year, a loss

which had a lot to do with why the Lady Indians missed the final Western

Connecticut Conference Final Four playoffs, one of the most inconsolable

people on the bench that night was Ali Giannini.

She didn't even play. She sat on the bench like she had for the 12 games

before that night and like she would for the nine games following. But she was

upset because she knew in her heart that had she been out there on the floor

she could have helped.

" When we went through the lines (last year), " Ali remembered, " people would

say, `get better . . . can't wait to see you next year . . . they need you.'

When we lost to Barlow and when we lost to New Milford, I was really upset. I

felt if I was in there I could have made a difference.

Ali, now a junior, missed all of her sophomore season with an ankle injury

that was detected just as practices and tryouts for the year had begun. She

had become somewhat of a freshman sensation the year before, scoring 69 points

and earning herself her own little cheering section in the Newtown High School

gymnasium. But her sophomore year, what could have been her coming out party,

was wiped out when her doctor discovered she had a hole in her ankle bone. She

wasn't cleared until there was one game left, for the Lady Indians, in the

CIAC Class LL state tournament.

Yet, by then, it was too late.

Ali's next time on a basketball court was with her AAU team, shortly after the

1994-95 girls' basketball season had ended. And when practice and tryouts for

the 1995-96 season opened, Ali's return was accompanied with a heady dose of

anticipation. But it wasn't easy coming back.

" I think I was trying too hard to fill everyone's expectations, " said Ali,

who struggled early and did not score in double figures until her sixth game

back. " I had played all summer with AAU, but that was with a different core

of kids, so I definitely tried to hard to please everyone. I finally settled

down and went at my own pace. "

Her first time in double figs this year was against Shelton in the annual

Gaelettes Christmas Tournament, but the 11 she scored that night could in no

way stave off Shelton, which rolled to a 68-38 win. And the 15 she scored a

few nights later wasn't nearly enough to help the Lady Indians hold off New

Fairfield, which won 48-34.

The Lady Indians, at that point, were 4-4 and Ali had to, in her mind, not

only make up for her own absence from the previous year, but also pick up the

slack left behind with injuries to Liz Glaser and Michele Draper.

" All we talked about at the banquet last year was the team we would have next

year, " Ali said. " Then that happened and it was like everything was taken

away. Even the coaches said, then, we were one dimensional. "

One dimensional or not, the Lady Indians won their next game. And the next one

after that. And the next one. And the next one. Fourteen in a row, as of

Tuesday night, when the Lady Indians defeated Lauralton Hall, 50-40, in the

semi-finals of the South-West Conference playoffs.

" So many girls on this team have the heart and intensity to get through

something like that (the injuries), " Ali explained. " We knew it was going to

be a problem that we didn't have size, but everyone stepped up a little more.

" Ali herself came on in that stretch. She scored 78 points in an eight-game

stretch (9.75 a game), scoring 11 against Shelton, 15 against New Fairfield,

and a career high 23 against Stratford. In a three game stretch near the end

of the year, Ali, playing her best basketball, had 12 against New Milford, 10

against Abbott Tech, and 15 in an important win over Notre Dame.

" Stratford was just a good shooting night, " Ali said. " I couldn't say it

was an all-around great night. But I had a lot of fun at Notre Dame because

that was a big game and we were so pumped at both ends of the floor. "

Ali's presence on the floor gives the Lady Indians three solid ball handlers

in the back court and quick strike capability from each of those three

positions. On top of her 184 points and 8.4 ppg, Ali leads the team with 17

three-pointers and boasts a school-record five three-pointers earned in her

23-point performance against Stratford.

Her shooting prowess was an important catalyst, too, in the Lady Indians

quarter-final win over Joel Barlow. Barlow's hot-handed Megan Haines hit

threes on two different occasions in the first half that brought the Lady

Falcons into a tie with the Lady Indians, but both times Ali came down the

floor on the next trip and drained threes of her own to quiet the Barlow

faithful. " We have an inside game, " Ali said, " an outside game, a running

game and we can slow it down. We have been patient with the ball and haven't

been forcing anything. If we need to put it inside we put it inside and if we

need to hit from the outside we can. "

Ali adds that dimension and with her back on the floor, the Lady Indians are

on the best run in the history of the girls' basketball program.