Class L girls: Simsbury wins its first title on an emotional day for the Zullo family
UNCASVILLE – Earlier in the day, his father’s girls basketball team had won its semifinal game in upstate New York.
Saturday night, it was Sam Zullo’s turn.
After an emotional season in which Zullo lost his mom to cancer, his Simsbury girls basketball team – and its two seniors – came through on the biggest stage. The second-seeded Trojans, in their first state championship game, defeated No. 1 Holy Cross 55-40 in the Class L final Saturday night at Mohegan Sun Arena.
“He’s been through so much this year,” said Simsbury senior Amanda Gallagher, who led the team in scoring with 21 points. “It means so much for me and the whole team to be able to win this for him.”
Her senior teammate Olivia Jarvis, who scored 19 points, including her 1,000th career point in the first half, and had eight rebounds, was named the game’s Most Outstanding Player.
When she and Gallagher came off the court, they hugged their coach.
“Oh my gosh, it feels amazing,” Jarvis said. “This court, this atmosphere is incredible. This is where Taylor Swift performs, the WNBA – we played on a professional court and to win on it in my last ever basketball game is amazing.
“This has been (Zullo)’s dream since he was four years old, he told us. And to get this after everything he’s been through is amazing.”
Zullo, who grew up playing in New York for his father Jim, never made it to the state finals.
“I was trying to get to the Glens Falls Civic Center to play, hoping to get to the New York state championship games,” Zullo said. “I never made it that far as a player. I’ve been dreaming about this my whole life, so yeah, selfishly for me, I’m really happy. But to share it with this group of kids and those two seniors, there’s nobody better than those kids. They’re truly a part of my family.”
Saturday, Simsbury shot out to a big lead, 15-2 at one point in the first quarter, and 16-4 by the end of the quarter.
“I wanted to leave at the end of the first quarter,” Zullo said. “I thought that would be a good time to end the game.”
Jarvis scored her 1,000th point midway through the quarter to give Simsbury a 21-9 lead. But Holy Cross chipped away at the lead and trailed only 24-17 by halftime.
“We got a little comfortable after the first quarter and we got a little tired in the second quarter – we usually get like that but our coach calmed us down at halftime, he kept us motivated,” Jarvis said. “And we came out strong with our defense like usual.”
Simsbury forced Holy Cross into 24 turnovers. Freshman Addison Girard had eight steals for Simsbury (along with nine points). Holy Cross, led by Shania Howard’s 17 points, cut the lead to 31-28 with 1:41 left in the third quarter but that was as close as the Crusaders would get.
Earlier in the day, Jim Zullo’s Northville (N.Y.) girls team won its Class D state semifinal game, 42-34 over Elba. Northville will play for the state championship against Hammond on Sunday morning. Jim, 80, a long-time retired coach who is in the state’s basketball hall of fame, took a job coaching the girls team at the urging of his wife Linda, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer last spring. Linda made Sam promise he would never miss a game and so Sam drove back and forth to upstate New York to see her in January. Linda died Jan. 14.
“My mom was the best human I ever met,” Sam said. “She was always there for others.
“It’s sad she can’t be here. I don’t know everything I believe in but I believe that this was all meant to be, this year, the way that it happened. I feel very, very fortunate.”
