The Torrington girls begin their work in Class L’s second round on Friday night at 7 in the Connie Donahue Gymnasium.

The No. 5 Lady Raiders take on No. 12 Daniel Hand (Madison). The Tigers defeated No. 21 Bunnell 72-62 in a first round game on Tuesday night in Madison. Senior forward Kelsey Cuddy (6’0”) had 23 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 blocks. Kara McHugh, a 5’5” senior guard, added 17 points while 5’5” junior guard Hannah Johnson tallied 12 points. You can read more about Daniel Hand’s first game of the tournament by clicking here.

Torrington will need senior center Caycee Williams to keep playing the way she has been playing. In the NVL tournament title game against Holy Cross, Williams had 16 points, 17 rebounds and 2 blocks, and played very well against the talented Danielle Dorsett.

The Raiders are also looking for another strong performance out of senior forward Aly Otis. Against Holy Cross, Otis 24 points, 6 rebounds and 2 steals.

Torrington could offset the play of Hand’s guards with strong efforts from their own. Senior Mariah Cerruto scored seven straight points against Holy Cross during a key stretch in the NVL title game. Junior Nicole Kozlak could cause problems because of her height (5’11) and her ability to stretch a defense with her 3-point shooting. Sophomore Caroline Teti has taken on a big role as the point guard and has improved as the season has gone on.

As always, turnovers and fouls are big keys in a tournament game. Torrington must not commit a lot of turnovers, and it must avoid foul trouble to contend with Cuddy on the inside.

Here’s Torrington’s probable starting lineup for the game:

Caycee Williams, sr. center, 6’1”

Aly Otis, sr. forward, 5’8”

Nicole Kozlak, jr. guard, 5’10”

Mariah Cerruto, sr. guard, 5’2”

Caroline Teti, soph. guard, 5’0”

Kevin D. Roberts will be covering the game and sending out updates on Twitter @kroberts023, along with conducting a live chat from the game on registercitizen.com/sports. If you can’t make it to the game, go to kroberts023 on Twitter and registercitizen.com/sports to get the latest.

- Kevin D. Roberts