Coginchaug Too Much for East Hampton

The East Hampton boys basketball team had a chance on Thursday night to show how far it has come since starting the season 0-3. Riding a two-game winning streak, the Bellringers hosted Coginchaug, one of the favorites to contend in the Shoreline Conference.

To say this was a test might be placing too much emphasis on the sixth game of the season. Regardless, the Bellringers were outgunned, undermanned and in the end, no match for the Blue Devils.

Coginchaug took control early behind 15 first-half points from Erikson Wasyl, then blew the game open in the second half en route to a 58-33 victory.

“We’re a Jeckyll and Hyde team. We’ve laid some real eggs,” East Hampton coach Parker Strong said. “We didn’t defend. We got outrebounded by 17 tonight. You’ve got almost no shot if you give the other team 17 more chances to score. We got outworked on the glass. We got outworked in general. Disappointing. Real disappointing."

The Blue Devils built a 16-9 lead in the first quarter, primarily off the fastbreak. Coginchaug turned defensive rebounds and turnovers into quick points, with Wasyl racing down the court three times for layups.

Wasyl didn’t let up in the second quarter, scoring on a putback then nailing a three-pointer for a 25-10 lead. East Hampton rallied a bit with two free throws by Nate Heroux and a three by Matt Vasquenza to cut the defecit to 25-15, but Coginchaug gathered itself following a timeout and took a 33-19 lead into halftime.

The only bad news up to this point for Coginchaug was that Wasyl, a first team All-Shoreline last season, twisted his ankle in the second quarter. The senior returned for a bit in the second half before taking a seat on the bench for the rest of the game. Afterward, Wasyl emerged from the locker room with a noticeable limp and ice wrapped on his ankle.

“He’s hurting. We have it on ice now,” Coginchaug coach Todd Salva said. “It’s way to soon to even predict what’s going to happen. He’s turned that ankle many times.”

If there was any doubt entering the third quarter, Coginchaug ended it in the first three minutes.

Two baskets by Brock Hoyt capped an 8-0 run by the Blue Devils for a 41-19 lead. Kyle Adams finally ended the run with a nice lay in off an inbounds pass. Hoyt and Jacob Teitelbaum, however, kept the pressure on East Hampton with four points each as Coginchaug built a 52-23 lead after three quarters.

“I thought defensively after the first quarter, from the second quarter on, we did a great job taking away some of that penetration to the basket,” Salva said. “We did a better job rotating down and around on the weak side. They were hurting us early with the extra pass, the weak-side shots. East Hampton battled pretty tough on the boards. Once we were able to do a better job on the boards and we got out and ran, I think in the third quarter we were able to get the game opened up a little bit just running the court more.”

After averaging 58.7 points through its first four games, East Hampton has averaged 40.5 the last two.

“Coginchaug played good defense. They’re tough. They’re physical,” Strong said. “I thought we got a lot of good looks. There were some that were bad shots, but we’re just having trouble putting the ball in the hole. Coming into today we were 22 percent from three-point land as a team and that’s not going to cut it. That needs to be fixed. We got to be able to hit open shots.”

The Bellringers (2-4, 0-4 Shoreline) were playing without senior Jeff Pratt, who missed the game because of an illness. Strong is hopeful Pratt will be well enough to play Saturday against Portland. In his place, Colin Parks got the first start of his varsity career. Parks, a sophomore, finished with nine points and also had at least two blocks.

“Colin is getting tougher by the day,” Strong said. “I’ve been really happy with Colin’s progress from where we started to where he is now. He’s progressed well. He’s starting to become a guy we feel very comfortable having on the floor. If Pratt is not going to go Saturday, I’m completely comfortable with Colin starting again. For the most part, he didn’t do a bad job and made some mistakes. From where he’s coming from, starting a big game like this, I thought he did all right.”

Coginchaug improved to 5-1, 5-0 in the Shoreline, including wins at Valley Regional and Hyde. With eight seniors, the expectations are high for the Blue Devils, though Salva isn’t looking ahead.

“The kids set the bar pretty high for themselves,” said Salva, who recorded his 300th career victory on Monday. “I didn’t set the bar as high as they did and I’m actually trying to talk them down a little bit. Eight seniors, they all get along. Defensively they are as solid as any team comes. We have a solid inside game with Ethan [Donecker] and Brock … and Erikson is just tremendous on the perimeter. It’s tough to say where we’re going to be a month from now because so much stuff can happen between now and then, so it’s just going to be one day at a time.”

Vasquenza led East Hampton with 10 points. Heroux had eight. Hoyt led Coginchaug with 18 points. Wasyl scored 17.

The Bellringers will look to get back on track Saturday at Portland. The Highlanders (0-7) remained winless on Thursday, losing at home to Hale-Ray, 56-30.