Old Saybrook Ends East Hampton's Season

It wasn’t supposed to end this way. Not in their first game of the state tournament. Not at home. Not with Kelsey Booth scoring 27 points. Not to 22 seed Old Saybrook.

But it did.

The East Hampton girls dug themselves too big a hole to climb out of Thursday night, losing 39-35 to the Rams in the second round of the Class S tournament.

Trailing by 20 points is difficult enough. Having to make up the difference with a little less than a half remaining is more akin to scaling a mountain than fighting an uphill battle.

So, how did it get to be, that with about seven minutes to go in the third quarter, the Bellringers trailed 29-9?

“No energy, no enthusiasm, zero focus,” East Hampton coach Shaun Russell said. “This time of year, if you’re going to play like that, this is exactly the result you’re going to get. … Certainly an extremely disappointing first half in all those areas.”

Ah, the first half. You don’t need to dissect this game to find one play, one bad call or some three-minute stretch that was a turning point in determining the outcome. This is where the game was lost. The Bellringers scored one point in the first quarter, nine points in the half, and had two baskets. Turnovers were plentiful, the half-court offense shut down by the Rams’ matchup zone, and when East Hampton did get an open look, missed shots followed. There was nothing good about the half, unless you were rooting for Old Saybrook.

“A one-point first quarter and a nine-point half is going to put you in a spot most nights where you’re going to have to play almost 16 perfect minutes of basketball to have a chance to win.,” Russell said.

Center Kayla McAvoy had 12 of the Rams’ first-half points.

“I couldn’t believe it,” McAvoy said of their 27-9 lead at halftime. “We needed to make sure we played as hard as we did in the first half. We needed to play 32 minutes, not 16. The first half wasn’t good enough. We had to make sure we maintained our lead.”

As it turned out, they did, but barely. East Hampton (17-6) had plenty of fight left, one more come-from-behind effort. They had done it before this season, recently, too, against Valley Regional and Morgan. In those games, though, they didn’t trail by this much. An almost-perfect second half would be enough to give them a chance to win. It just wouldn’t be enough to get them over the top.

Riding the shoulders of First-Team All-Shoreline senior Kelsey Booth, East Hampton hustled, banged and, not slowly, but quickly chipped away at its deficit.

After McAvoy, who also made First-Team All-Shoreline, scored to make it 29-9, the Bellringers went on a 10-0 run to make it 29-19. Before the third quarter was over, Booth had scored 14 of East Hampton’s 15 points to help close the gap to 31-24 entering the fourth quarter.

Old Saybrook (11-12) responded with a 5-0 run to start the fourth, building its lead to 36-24. Then Booth took over again. Despite nursing four fouls, she stayed aggressive on both ends of the floor and scored the next seven points to trim the deficit to 36-31 with 2:38 remaining. If there was a pivotal play, it came soon after.

The Rams were reeling, the gym loud and momentum clearly on East Hampton’s side when, with 1:46 remaining, Booth stole the ball and went end-to-end, taking the ball hard into the paint. Booth’s floater went in and when the whistle blew, it appeared she would go to the free-throw line for a chance at a three-point play. Suddenly, the nine-point first half, that 20-point deficit, were distant memories.

But wait.

Offensive foul. Charging. No basket. Worse, Booth had fouled out.

If you're from East Hampton, it was a horrible call. If you call Old Saybrook home, a game that was slipping through your fingers in monumental fashion was back, at least temporarily, in the clutches of your increasingly sweaty palms.

“That call, just because it’s a basket, if she makes that layup without that call, that’s probably the one basket that gets you right where you want to be, where you can manage the last minutes a little better,” Russell said.

With Booth gone, East Hampton didn’t quit. Vanessa Freeman made a steal and a nice assist to Sarah Denihan for a layup, cutting the lead to 36-33. Then Klaudia Komarnicka grabbed a loose ball, drove into the lane and was fouled. Her two free throws made it 36-35 with 51.9 seconds left.

Facing East Hampton's full-court press, Old Saybrook had trouble getting past halfcourt. After a timeout, they finally did, and Kelly Ratchford (10 points) eventually broke past the defense and down the sideline with her dribble, then drove baseline for a layup and a foul with 28.3 seconds remaining. She missed the free throw, though, giving East Hampton life.

Down 38-35, Komarnicka took the ball strong to the basket where McAvoy was waiting. The shot was off the mark and the Rams put the game away with another free throw.

“I told the kids it’s a tremendous effort,” Russell said. “It showed they got some guts, but you can’t give first halves away at this time of year and think that you’re just going to turn the switch and everything is going to be fine. Tonight it wasn’t fine. You end up fighting for your life to try and get within a basket. In the second half, I think we gave up 12 points in the whole half. It’s unfortunate. I feel terrible for them. There’s not a whole heck of a lot to say to that. You’re not going to make them feel better with any speech after that.”

After beating Cheney Tech in the first round, Old Saybrook now goes on to the quarterfinals to play at Windsor Locks, a 49-47 upset winner over Coginchaug, its second straight victory over a Shoreline opponent.

“We’re playing our best basketball at the end of the year,” said Old Saybrook coach Steve Woods after getting a big hug from his wife. “I thought we had a real good shot. We lost a tough game to Coginchaug in the [Shoreline] quarterfinals and we played closer than the score indicated.  I really felt if we did the job defensively we could beat this team. They’re a good team, but we did an unbelievable job in the first half. It was our offense that kind of came unglued in the second half, which we have to do better at.”

Said McAvoy, who finished with 15 points: “I knew this game would be tough. Even if we got the lead in the first half, I know they’re a great team. I knew we could win because we did only lose by five the last game to them and we beat them last year. I wasn’t expecting it, but I’m excited.”

While Old Saybrook shared hugs and laughs on the court long after the final buzzer, there were hugs and tears shared in the lobby by East Hampton’s seniors, who were among the last of the players to file out. For Booth, Freeman and Kate Dash, it was their final basketball game as a Bellringer.

“It’s sad, certainly for the seniors, I feel terrible for them that it has to end this way,” Russell said. “There’s no finger pointing here. Congratulations to Old Saybrook, they’ll march on and we’ll do some head scratching.

“It was an unfortunate ending to what was a real good year.”

As the lowest seed remaining in Class S, Old Saybrook can start being fitted for its glass slipper.

“These are great kids. They’re coachable,” Woods said. “They do everything you ask them to do and it’s their moment.

“It’s my birthday on Monday, and I said ‘Give me a game on my birthday.’”