Hyde Routs East Hampton

The East Hampton girls' basketball team found out the hard way that Hyde has no intention of being a pushover this season.

The Howling Wolves, who won four games last year, defeated the Bellringers 71-30 in New Haven on Tuesday night.

“For the first time this year we played timid and did not give a full 32 minutes of focused effort or intensity especially on the defensive end of the floor," East Hampton coach Shaun Russell said.

Hyde (1-1) returned four starters to this season's team, none of which were sophomore Maya Eggleston, who had 24 points, 15 rebounds and nine blocks.

Another sophomore, Trayneice Mims, added 22 points. Mims earned second-team All-Shoreline honors last season.

Russell did find something positive in the loss, the third consecutive road game to start the season for East Hampton.

“Adrianna Zawodniak had a very solid floor game and showed some signs of coming around on the offensive end of the floor,” he said.

Klaudia Komarnicka led East Hampton with 16 points and Sarah Denihan had eight.

The Bellringers (1-2) have a week off before playing at Portland on Dec. 20. The Highlanders, the defending Class S state champions, defeated North Branford 39-23 Tuesday night.

"We must now decide who we are going to be as a team going forward, individually and collectively," Russell said. "I believe we can find it and work through the process of refocusing our energies on the things we can control and the things we are good at. Our ability to commit to those ends will move us forward.”