PLAINVILLE — Mike Busillo and his Sheehan girls basketball team are heading back to Championship Weekend, but it took a whole lot of dogged hill climbing Tuesday night before they could glimpse The Sun.
Down early against No. 2-seeded Rocky Hill and again to start the fourth quarter, the No. 3 Titans held the Terriers scoreless for more than six minutes in the final frame to wrest away a 37-31 victory in the CIAC Class MM semifinals at the Plainville High School Wood Gymnasium.
Sheehan junior Megan Wresien sealed the win at the foul line in the final minute with career point 1,000.
"We knew Rocky Hill was going to put up a really good fight, and I'm really happy my teammates were able to trust me to be able to make those free throws," said Wresien. "It just feels great to be able to play at Mohegan again. It's a great opportunity to win a championship."
More For You
Wresien and the Titans, now 20-6, will face top-seeded East Catholic, a 41-25 winner over No. 12 Ellington in Tuesday's other Class MM semifinal, in the championship game this weekend at Mohegan Sun Arena on Sunday at 3 p.m.
Rocky Hill, bidding for its first trip to the state finals, closed the season at 19-6.
Rocky Hill junior forward Katie Harding led all scorers with 17 points and junior point guard Kelsey LeMay finished with 11. They combined on five 3-pointers, including a pair that put the Terriers ahead 29-26 in the opening 1:30 of the fourth quarter.
That would be the last of Rocky Hill's scoring, however, until Harding hit a transition jumper just inside the 3-point arc with 19 seconds left.
By then, Sheehan had reeled off nine unanswered points to take a 35-29 lead. A steal and layup by Wresien, followed by a Gabby Busillo 3-pointer from up top, sparked the decisive surge.
Wresien finished with 16 points despite picking up her third and fourth fouls back to back midway through the third quarter. Her twin sister Jenna slashed her way to 13 points."
"Rocky Hill put up a great fight," said Jenna Wresien. "It was a great environment to be in. They had a lot of people from their student section, and I think Katie and Kelsey had a great game."
It took Sheehan five minutes to get on the board. Rocky Hill, loudly cheered by a throng of white-shirted classmates in the stands, scored the first seven points and led 9-2 before Sheehan started to claw back behind the Wresien sisters.
A corner trey by Gabby Busillo also helped the Titans pull even 13-13 late in the second quarter. Rocky Hill mustered just three points in the frame, all from the foul line. The last one, delivered by Isabella Tucker, had the Terriers up 15-14 at intermission.
Jenna Wresien rose to the fore in the third quarter. Her eight points, combined with a Susie Hotaling conversion down low, pushed the Titans ahead 36-30.
A 3-pointer by LeMay before the quarter cut the gap in half. The treys by LeMay and Harding to start the fourth erased it entirely and put the Terriers back on top.
But not to stay. Ultimately, Sheehan showed the pluck that's carried it through a gauntlet of a SCC regular season and now, for a second straight year, to Mohegan Sun.
"They're tough," Busillo said of Rocky Hill. "They play good half-court defense; they made us work for everything. I was telling their coach before the game I think we have two teams that are real similar to each other, and it kind of played out. We just made a few more plays."
A pause. "I'm worn out, bro."
This will be Sheehan's third trip to the finals in five CIAC tournaments. The Titans fell to Cromwell in 2019 and Northwest Catholic in 2024. Their lone state title came in 1976.
While the Rocky Hill girls have never reached the finals, their coach, Peter Asadourian, led the Rocky Hill boys to the Class S crown in 2002.
Last year, in Asadourian's first season with the girls team, Rocky Hill reached the quarterfinals before falling to eventual CIAC champ Northwest Catholic.
"These girls fight hard," Asadourian said. "We won 16 regular-season games. We got that two seed and we earned it by grit and just working so hard throughout the year.
"Obviously, Sheehan's a great team," Asadourian added. "We couldn't get our offense going, really. It was a defensive rock fight on both sides. I think their advantage was the free throw line. They made their free throws and (the Wresiens) did a tremendous job going to the rack on us. But, again, we couldn't get our offense going."
Player of the Game
Megan Wresien, Sheehan —Third-year junior reached the 1,000-point milestone at the foul line with 18 seconds left to seal Tuesday's 37-31 victory over Rocky Hill. Wresien finished with a team-high 16 points.
Quotable
“That's a typical Sheehan win: rock fight, grind it out.” — Sheehan coach Mike Busillo
CIAC CLASS MM GIRLS BASKETBALL SEMIFINAL
Sheehan 37, Rocky Hill 31
SHEEHAN 6 8 12 11 — 37 ROCKY HILL 12 3 8 8 — 31
Sheehan (20-6) Megan Wresien 2 12-16 16, Jenna Wresien 4 5-6 13, Gabby Busillo 2 0-0 6, Susie Hotaling 1 0-0 2, Julia Cassesse 0 0-0 0. Totals: 9 17-22 37.
Rocky Hill (19-6) Katie Harding 7 1-1 17, Kelsey LaMay 4 0-0 11, Jill Rhouddou 0 0-0 0, Madisyn Aurigemma 0 1-2 1, Isabella Tucker 0 1-2 1, Anji Daley 0 1-2 1. Totals: 11 4-7 31.
March 11, 2025
Staff writer
Bryant Carpenter is a sportswriter with the Record-Journal. He joined Hearst Connecticut Media Group in 2024. He's husband to Colleen, father to Laura and Danny, author of "Life Is Still Good," rider of bicycles and loyalist of the Boston Red Sox and Bruins.