Booth Leads the Way for East Hampton

There comes a point in the season when a team is handed a challenge. How it responds could determine its course as it attempts to navigate the rest of the regular season and the postseason.

After an impressive 10-game winning streak, the East Hampton girls were listing of late, beating the weaker teams and losing to two of the top teams in the Shoreline Conference, both at home. With a Shoreline quarterfinal playoff game hanging in the balance, the Bellringers had the difficult task Monday night of traveling to face one of the conference's perennially tough teams.

Just as a team's season can help be defined by one game, so too can a player's. Not that Kelsey Booth has anything to prove. Booth's career is worthy of all the awards, praise and double-teams she has received. Yet on this night, she showed her team and supporters something a box score never could.

To be sure, the game against Morgan was big. These two teams are on a collision course to meet again in the quarterfinals  of the Shoreline Conference tournament as the fourth and fifth seeds. The only question was where.

East Hampton answered that with a 41-38 victory in Clinton. It was the kind of game you expected from two of the top teams in the conference, even if hours before the game you were unsure of what to expect from an an East Hampton team that might be without its top player.

The Bellringers sometimes lackluster, sometimes dominating performance against Westbrook Saturday night had a whole lot of cold water thrown on it when Booth fell to the floor in the third quarter with what was, by all appearances, a badly sprained ankle, maybe worse. As Booth was helped off the court unable to put weight on her left leg, all the fun and success of what would be, to that point, a 14-4 season, was suddenly clouded by the possibility that the team would be without its star senior for the foreseeable future. For sure she would miss the game against Morgan.

Not so fast.

The first bit of good news came when it was determined there was no structural damage.

"We were prepared for any eventuality tonight," coach Shawn Russell said. "If she couldn't go, that was all right. Tonight's game was regular season game number 19, that's it."

On Sunday, Booth attended practice, though she did not participate … as a player.

"She's proven this year to be a good leader and she did a good job [Sunday] helping the kids get ready to play today because as of Sunday, she wasn't going to play and we prepared for that," Russell said.

Part of being a good leader is showing a level of toughness and competitiveness that teammates can respond to. It might not show up in any statistic, but it does on the court. As much as scoring 30 points when healthy might have lifted her team, Booth answering the bell Monday night did just as much."

"She was well enough to give it a go tonight," Russell said. " A big key was she felt very loose during warmups so we were going to give it a try and see where it went from there. She was able to stay loose throughout the game, luckily for her and us.

"It was nice to see her give it a try and be effective."

Effective? Booth led the team with 12 points and figured late in the outcome, scoring on a layup with 1:04 left and adding a free throw for a 39-35 lead.

"I thought it was a real game effort by her tonight," Russell said." I thought she hung in there well. I was actually surprised that she was able to go that long."

For many if not most, Booth able to go at all was probably a surprise.

"[The last 48 hours] have been very tough," Booth said." It's progressed a lot. Saturday night I couldn't even walk on it. I crawled throughout my house, I couldn't do anything. Sunday I was able to limp around, walk a little bit. Finally I'm able to walk, but after that game, I'm limping again."

Booth's effort Monday night embodies the myriad characteristics that have been necessary for the Bellringers to compile a 15-4 record this season (13-4 Shoreline). They don't blow teams out as much as they grind them down. They do it with, among other things, teamwork, focus, fundamentals and yes, toughness. Booth might be the main cog for East Hampton, but all the parts have to be working together and all the intangibles present for there to be success. They don't beat Morgan (13-6, 12-5 Shoreline) twice in a season without it.

"I think for us this year, if we don't match [Morgan's] energy level and their intensity, the rest of it won't matter," Russell said. "It won't matter how well you play if you can't play at that level of intensity and enthusiasm and energy, which I thought both times we did a real good job of."

Ahead 39-35, Morgan's Melissa Bastian (13 points) hit a three-pointer with 20.2 seconds remaining to pull the Huskies within 39-38. On the ensuing inbound play, East Hampton struggled to get the ball past midcourt and called timeout with 14.7 seconds left. The final seconds are open for debate. Morgan had an opportunity to foul Sarah Denihan quickly but didn't. Denihan passed to Booth who found Klaudia Komarnicka about 10 feet from the basket. Komarnicka, rather than waiting to be fouled or passing to a teammate, took the ball into the lane without any hesitation for a little turnaround jumper over a defender to make it 41-38. Morgan's Christy Coyne then tried a desperation heave from halfcourt that was off the mark.

Komarnicka, who has been on a roll of late, scored 10 points for East Hampton. Denihan added seven.

"At this point, we're in the tournament. Everyone is playing for seeding so we're just trying to do the best we can," Russell said. "I think everyone, at the same time, we're all trying to get positive momentum going into the postseason so you want to play well even if you're not going to get the win. Tonight I really wanted to get out of here playing well even if the result wasn't on the positive side. I wanted to feel like we played well."

Russell got both. Consider that a challenge met.

As for Booth, as bad as her injury looked and as hobbled as she might have been Saturday night into Sunday, the thought of not being able to return this season never crossed her mind.

"I knew I was getting back out on the court," she said.

By coming back the very next game, however, Booth took her leadership to the next level and introduced a reached down and found even a higher standard of toughness and heart that can only benefit the Bellringers if they follow her lead.

A defining moment? Time will tell.