Sacred Heart Greenwich’s varsity basketball team defeated St. Luke’s School for the FAA Tournament championship the previous two seasons and was victorious against the Storm by 24 points in early February, yet it was St. Luke’s’ day when the rivals met in the FAA final on Feb. 28th.

On a roll since the latter portion of the regular season, fourth-seeded St. Luke’s continued its outstanding play of late, opening a double-digit lead on Sacred Heart in the second half on its way to capturing what eluded it the past two years – the FAA championship.

The trio of Kendra Foy, Harper Williams and Kamiya Balcombe powered No. 4 St. Luke’s past No. 2-seeded host Sacred Heart, 68-54, in the FAA title game before a large, enthusiastic gathering.

Foy scored a game-high 22 points, Williams added 19 points and Balcombe contributed 16 for St. Luke’s, which won the FAA tourney title for the first time since the 2022-2023 season. Sacred Heart was paced by 20 points from junior forward Lucianna Parrotta and a 16-point effort from senior guard Eva Wilkerson.

“I think we played really hard, I think we just came up short on a lot of plays earlier,” said Parrotta, who made two 3-pointers for the game and scored 11 second-half points. “We didn’t really hit as many shots as we usually do, so I think that got us in the end.”

As Wilkerson accomplished recently, Parrotta also reached the 1,000-career point milestone for the Tigers in a recent game.

“It was a really great feeling,” Parrotta said of achieving the 1,000 career-point plateau. “I’ve been here since freshman year, so that’s a pretty big accomplishment and I’m happy about it.”

In the FAA Tournament showdown between Sacred Heart and St. Luke’s, which is becoming an annual game involving the rivals, the Storm led, 33-24, at halftime, then played from in front the entire second half.

The Storm’s zone defense was effective versus the Tigers, who couldn’t maintain their normal stellar shooting touch from the perimeter.

“They played a zone the whole game,” SHG coach Ayo Hart said. “Our shots didn’t fall today. The 3s we normally make, I think we had 14 the other day, today, we might have had four. If you’re not making shots that you normally make, you have to figure something different out. We got the ball inside, but we even missed layups. I said to the girls after the game, ‘sometimes you make shots, sometimes you don’t.”

Sacred Heart, which flourished on offense during a 90-64 win over Greens Farms Academy in the FAA semifinals, scored the first four points of the game to take a quick 4-0 lead on the Storm, who then went on a 7-0 run to go ahead, 7-4.

A 3-pointer from junior captain Emma Mathews gave the Tigers a 14-11 edge, yet the Storm held a 16-14 lead following the first quarter on a 3-pointer from forward Allison Posner. The visitors didn’t relinquish the lead thereafter, going ahead 31-20, late in the second quarter after Fox converted a 3-point shot and 33-22 on another shot from beyond the arc from Fox.

SHG posted a decisive 75-51 victory over St. Luke’s on Feb. 4th, but this FAA championship game was a different story.

“I don’t think that this game is reflective of our team, or our season as a whole,” said Wilkerson, one of Sacred Heart’s captains. “We have a really great group of girls and we played with intensity the entire time. We stuck to our game plan and it really just came down to defense, we had a couple of lapses here and there and not making shots.”

The third quarter ended with the Storm up, 48-39. The Tigers closed to within six points at 52-46 with under five minutes left in the third quarter but the Storm concluded the game strong to seal the title.

“We just weren’t making our shots and weren’t hitting what we usually hit,” said Mathews, who scored six points. “St. Luke’s is a really gritty team. They made more shots and it just kind of comes down to that.”

“We didn’t change our game plan, we kept our same goals that we had all year,” Mathews continued. “At the end of the day, they just executed better than us. It’s unfortunate, but I’m really proud of this team from where we came from at the beginning of the year – we’ve grown a lot, so I’m proud of them.”

Kayla Mouzon had eight points and Posner scored five for St. Luke’s, which advanced to the final with a 58-56 comeback win over top-seeded Hamden Hall on a buzzer-beater in the tourney’s semifinals. Tigers senior forward/guard/captain Ava Curto contributed 12 points.

“I’m really proud of our team,” Curto said. “We came a long way and we definitely developed from how we started and I’m proud of our team.”

The season is far from over for Sacred Heart and St. Luke’s. Sacred Heart earned the No. 2 seed in the NEPSAC Class A Tournament and will host seventh-seeded Choate Rosemary Hall in the quarterfinal-round of the eight-team tourney on March 4th at 4 p.m. SHG advanced all the way to the NEPSAC Class A title matchup one season ago, losing to Loomis Chaffee in the final. Loomis is the No. 1-seeded team in this year’s tournament.

St. Luke’s is seeded eighth in the Class B Tournament and will face No. 1-seeded St. George’s School in the quarterfinals.

“I think placing two, it’s not over and we still have a lot to do, so that’s pretty reassuring that it’s not done yet,” Parrotta said of competing in the NEPSAC Tournament.

“This game doesn’t define us, we’re still the No. 2 team in the NEPSAC, we have another season ahead of us,” Hart noted. “Hats off to St. Luke’s, they had a great game against Hamden Hall, they’re on a roll, so great for them. It’s hard to beat a team twice.”

Hart spoke of Parrotta scoring her 1,000th career point recently.

“It’s a great milestone,” she said. “It’s a great thing for a junior and a testament to her ability to score.”

Indeed, Sacred Heart is primed for another push toward reaching the NEPSAC Class A Tournament final.

“We’re putting this behind us,” Wilkerson said. “This is a hard loss, but this is going to fuel us for the future. It’s not over yet, we still have NEPSACs coming up, so we’re really excited for that.”

“Our goal is to work hard as a team and hopefully, get as far as we can,” Curto added.

“I definitely think that we’re going to be locked in,” Matthews noted. “We have a job to do. Now we have more fuel to bring home the NEPSAC trophy.”