East Hampton Girls Lose Opener at Cromwell

Having to play at Cromwell to open the girls’ basketball season is a tall order for any team. For East Hampton, there was the added challenge of being a team with a different look as it attempts to carve out a new identity in the post-Kelsey Booth era.

Gone is the first-team All-Shoreline standout that was relied on heavily to carry the team when things were not going well. What she left behind is a blend of youth and experience coach Shaun Russell will try to mesh into a cohesive and confident unit.

So, as Cromwell pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 43-21 victory Wednesday night, it wasn’t so much the final score that mattered most for the Bellringers. It was about meeting expectations for the first game of the season.

What were those expectations?

“The expectations would be to come here tonight and compete, play hard and defend,” Russell said. “I thought we competed. I thought we played hard and in the half court I thought we defended very well. We did not do a good job transitioning on defense, but in the half court I thought we did a really good job.”

Good enough to keep the score close deep into the third quarter. The Bellringers defense caused problems for Cromwell, allowing them to hang around despite the hole they dug with a seven-point first half. With the score 21-11 halfway through the third quarter, the Panther’s Janelle Harrison scored four quick points for a 25-11 lead. With Cromwell up 29-15, the Bellringers began to struggle with turnovers allowing the Panthers to go on a 14-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to seal the victory. Harrison, a sophomore, led all scorers with 17 points.

“We knew coming in our struggles were going to be on the offensive end of the floor,” Russell said. “That’s not so much shot making, it’s with having enough patience, togetherness and trust to run the sets and get shots we’re looking for. We’re not good enough to have the ball one-third of the game and they have it two-thirds of the game and win. We have to have the ball more than they have it, which means we can’t turn it over, we have to compete on the boards.  I was not unhappy with the effort on the rebounding, I thought we did about as good as we could. That’s a formidable front line of kids that play hard.”

With so many young players in the rotation, and getting quality minutes, Russell saw the game as a necessary step toward getting them experience. Call it growing pains.

“We have three new starters, one of them is a freshman,” he said. “We’re playing a freshman point guard a bit. We’re playing three or four sophomores a lot. Of the 12 kids that dressed tonight, 11 are in there playing minutes that count and I think that’s probably the way it is going to be for us. We’re going to have to keep looking for the combination each night. We’re going to need the seniors to step forward with leadership and to show the way out there. The real issue we’re going to fight every night is everyone has to do their part. Can’t have anyone trying to do more. Can not accept anyone doing less. Everyone has to do their part.

Klaudia Komarnicka scored six points for East Hampton, Sarah Denihan had five and among the newcomers, Whitney Rubega had four.

“Give Cromwell credit,” Russell said. “They were ready to play tonight. They were organized, confident and they were able to hurt us in a few areas and they did an excellent job of putting the ball in the basket.”

Next up for East Hampton is Westbrook on the road on Saturday. Westbrook lost 33-13 at Hale-Ray On Wednesday.

“I’m not dejected. I’m not disheartened and I’m not down on these kids tonight,” Russell said. “I liked a lot of what I saw. We can build on this.”