Hamden and FCIAC member Fairfield Ludlowe remained unbeaten with victories Tuesday (Jan. 31), so they remain ranked 1-2 in the current GameTimeCT Top 10 Girls Basketball Poll which was released Feb. 1.
Fairfield Ludlowe is the only FCIAC team in the Top 10 while two other conference teams, St. Joseph and New Canaan, received polling points.
Hamden was the unanimous No. 1 choice as the 16-0 Green Dragons received all 16 first-place votes and 480 polling points from the voting pollsters consisting of mostly media members along with a few coaches, including Fairfield Warde veteran coach Dave Danko.
Fairfield Ludlowe (15-0) received 436 polling points to finish with 18 more points than Mercy (12-2), which is No. 3 again.
Fourth-ranked Holy Cross (14-2) moved up one spot and flip-flopped positions with Sacred Heart Academy (12-4), which dropped down one spot to No. 5.
Immaculate (13-1) is ranked No. 6 and followed in the Top 10 by Daniel Hand (11-4), E.O. Smith (13-3), Pomperaug (13-2) and Newington (12-3).
Defending FCIAC champion St. Joseph (12-3) received the 15th most polling points and New Canaan (10-4) got the 19th most as the two conference teams among the 16 total in the “Also receiving votes” category.
Fairfield Ludlowe traveled to St. Joseph on Tuesday night for a showdown of the last two teams which had unbeaten conference records and coach Sarah Kinsley’s Falcons scored the last 13 points of the game to pull away for a 54-35 victory which improved them to 10-0 in the FCIAC. St. Joseph is now 9-1 in the conference.
Ludlowe utilized big nights from several Falcons. Rory Kudzy and Kaleigh Sommers each scored 15 points, Madison Roman had 12 points and hauled down 16 rebounds, and Caitlin Finnegan blocked nine shots.
Erin Lovett scored 10 points to lead coach Chris Lindwall’s St. Joseph Cadets.
Fairfield Warde, Trumbull, and Ridgefield are in a three-way tie for third place with 8-2 records in the FCIAC standings through Feb. 1.
New Canaan and Greenwich are tied for sixth at 6-4, Stamford (6-5) is eighth, Danbury (5-5) is ninth and Norwalk (4-6) is 10th.
The 2023 FCIAC Girls Basketball Tournament begins Feb. 18 at noon with the first of four quarterfinal games at Staples High School. The Feb. 21 semifinals and Feb. 23 championship game will be hosted by Trumbull High School.