Sports

East Hampton Wins on Dramatic Shot by Booth

Bellringers advance in Shoreline tournament

Let's call it a 30-footer. Maybe it was 35. If you want to say 40, that's OK, too. In 10 years, the story of Kelsey Booth's dramatic game-winning three-pointer might well be retold as a half-court desperation heave that carried the East Hampton girls into the semifinals of the Shoreline Conference tournament.

For sure, the final 4.1 seconds of this game won't soon be forgotten even if the first 31 minutes and 55.9 seconds should be. For East Hampton and visiting Morgan, two teams with hopes, if not expectations, of making a run in the state tournament, the game wasn't pretty. In the end, though, the Bellringers were the ones still standing with a come-from-behind 30-29 victory Saturday afternoon.

With both teams struggling on offense, Morgan awoke with a 12-4 run spanning the late third quarter and early fourth for a 27-19 lead. Then Booth took over, spearheading a late charge and adding another chapter to her storied high school career. East Hampton closed the game with an 11-2 run, holding the Huskies to two free throws the rest of the way.

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Still, it never appeared as though the Bellringers would have a chance to win, or even force overtime, until, with 4.1 seconds left and trailing 29-27, Morgan's Melissa Bastian left open the window of opportunity by missing the front end of a one-and-one.

"I knew that if she made that shot, made that foul shot, the game would most likely have been over," Booth said. "As soon as she missed that, so much emotion came rushing into me. I was like OK, you need to get a shot off, I need to work as fast as I can. Vanessa [Freeman] got the rebound. She passed it right to me and I just took off and I tried to do what I can do."

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What did Booth think when she released the ball?

"It looked really good," she said.

Not to Morgan. The Huskies (13-8) might not be the best team in the state, but they are certainly one of the most exciting. Unfortunately for them, they keep coming out on the wrong end of close games. Morgan has lost six games by a total of 11 points, four by one point, the last two on three-pointers at the buzzer.

"We've done this so often you would think by now we would be good in close games in terms of knowing how to finish," Morgan coach Joe Grippo said. "I know that's a hell of a shot by Booth, but it never should have come down to that because if we're making our free throws then it's not an issue.

"It's been all year long. It's been one play away from being a great team and right now we're not a very good team because we're not finishing games."

Said East Hampton coach Shaun Russell:  "I'm never going to discount winning. Postseason wins are always earned. That being said, do I think Morgan deserved to lose that game? No I don't.

"I thought it was a real gutsy effort by Morgan. That's the game you always get from them. You're going to get a physical game. You're going to get them doing the things they do well."

East Hampton's woes on offense were apparent from the start. The Bellringers didn't score until 2:15 was left in the first quarter when Sarah Denihan put in a rebound off her own miss. Morgan, however, was unable to capitalize as it was mired in an offensive funk of its own. A three-pointer by Ashley Chasse gave the Bellringers a brief 5-4 lead, but a three by Meghan Testoni  gave the Huskies a 7-5 edge heading into the second quarter. The Bellringers took back the lead at 10-9 on Klaudia Komarnicka's putback of a missed three by Chasse and managed to carry a 12-11 advantage into the half.

The third quarter was more of the same, as East Hampton failed to score from the field. Limited to five points from the free-throw line, the Bellringers gave the Huskies a chance to take control and Morgan did just that. The Huskies, led by Sarah Thompson and Testoni, closed out the third quarter with six straight points for a 23-17 lead.

"It was just not happening for us offensively," Russell said.

Morgan, playing without junior guard Christy Coyne because of an injury, made it 27-19 in the fourth quarter after they transitioned quickly off a miss by Komarnicka and found Bastian alone under the basket for an easy layup.

Things looked bleak for East Hampton, which had beaten Morgan twice during the regular season. So Booth, the senior, stepped up.

"Usually if it's a close game like that I will mentally try and take the game over myself to see if we can get a lead," Booth said. "It worked."

Booth scored on a pull-up 5-footer. Kate Dash added two free throws and Booth hit two of her own from the free-throw line to close the gap to 28-25.

Time was starting to run out, however, and having committed only three fouls, East Hampton had to waste precious seconds fouling Morgan to get over the limit and the Huskies to the free-throw line.

Finally Bastian was sent to the line where she made 1 of 2. Booth answered on the other end with a running one-hander to make it 29-27 with 5.5 seconds left. With 4.1 seconds remaining, Bastian was sent to the line again with the chance to put the game away once and for all.

She missed.

"The good thing is we were able to rebound that ball. Had a very good court awareness of how long we had," Russell said. "Generally, the rule is you got one good dribble for every second. So we knew on the catch she had three good dribbles, which with her size and ability, she is going to get over halfcourt. Lucky for us she was able to get it off, and sometimes it goes in."

This time it did and East Hampton (17-4) has a date for the Shoreline Conference semifinals Tuesday at Coginchaug in Durham against Portland, which defeated Old Lyme 64-39 Saturday night.

"I was proud of the effort, proud of the defense, the rest of it was spotty at best," Russell said. "I thought we managed the last few minutes pretty well, but that was not a pretty performance.

Except for the shot.


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