Last Second Shot Falls Short, HK Beats East Hampton [Video]

The East Hampton girls’ basketball team went looking for a signature win on Friday night. After struggling through the first half of the season, a victory over a quality opponent could do wonders for their confidence.

presented just that opportunity, and for most of the game it looked as though the Bellringers would get it done.

In the end, however, the Cougars rallied, then held their breath as Sarah Denihan’s three-pointer came up short, to escape with a 40-38 victory in Higganum.

“We’ve been playing well of late, practicing just as well, and I thought they were focused today,” East Hampton coach Shaun Russell said. “They showed me that, the way they played in the first half. I thought we did a really good job taking care of the ball early. The big key in the first half for us was our help defense was tremendous in the paint. Every shot they took was contested in the first half. There wasn’t an open look that we gave them."

The first half is one H-K (7-3) would like to forget.

The Cougars won the opening tip and seconds later Shaina Rowley was fouled on a drive to the basket. Her two free-throws gave the Cougars a quick 2-0 lead. Unfortunately for them, those would be the only points they scored in the first quarter.

East Hampton (3-8) had its own problems early on, but a three by Ashley Chasse and a basket by Klaudia Komarnicka gave the Bellringers a 5-2 lead to start the second quarter. Adrianna Zawodniak started the quarter off by converting a nice assist from Denihan to give East Hampton a 7-2 lead before Marissa Moncata finally hit H-K’s first basket 9:44 into the game.

The Bellringers kept the pressure on, however. Komarnicka hit a 12-footer and Taylor Muncie followed that with a basket from 17 feet out to extend East Hampton’s lead to 11-4.

Sammy Waskowitz hit a three to bring H-K to within 13-9 before Denihan scored the next five points for an 18-9 lead. H-K added a free throw before the half to go into the break down, 18-10.

“Building that kind of lead at halftime, that’s the kind of margin we need to work with because of some of our challenges with the ball, which showed themselves late,” Russell said.

The Bellringers missed out, however, on adding to their cushion. East Hampton was 2-for-8 in the first half from the free-throw line, missed opportunities for points that would come back to haunt them. The problem from the line was not lost on Russell.

“You’re not going to go on the road in this conference, which is good at the top, miss 10 free throws for the game and a couple of point-blank layups late, and expect to win a two-point game,” he said.

The Bellringers built their largest lead 6:25 into the third quarter when Denihan hit Chasse, who was cutting through the lane, with a nice pass for a layup to make the score 22-10. Chasse added a three with 5:34 remaining in the quarter to put East Hampton up, 25-14.

Haddam-Killingworth wasn’t about to go down without a fight, however, and midway through the quarter they went on an 11-2 run to pull within 27-25 on a short jumper by Rowley.

Komarnicka was fouled when she banked in a shot driving through the lane to give East Hampton a four-point edge. The free-throw, though, was missed and East Hampton headed into the fourth quarter clinging to a 29-26 advantage.

The Bellringers spent a good portion of the fourth quarter trying to fend off the Cougars. H-K caught up to tie the score at 30 on two free throws by Maya Savino, but East Hampton proved to be up to the challenge. Baskets by Denihan and Zawodniak put the Bellringers up, 34-30.

It was H-K’s turn to respond and it did. Tori Peterson scored down low and then grabbed a rebound on the defensive end and hit a streaking Savino, who raced in for a layup to tie the score.

Komarnicka then denied H-K a chance to take the lead with a block and Denihan found Leah Coughlin underneath for a lay in and a 36-34 lead. H-K finally took the lead at 37-36 but Zawodniak put the Bellringers back up 38-37 with two free throws.

The dagger was delivered by Rowley, who nearly lost the ball out of bounds near the left corner, recovered, then without hesitation, dribbled toward the free-throw line where she hit a turn-around 13-footer for a 39-38 lead.

“Give them credit,” Russell said of Haddam-Killingworth. “They kept playing, but this was one that’s certainly going to sting a little bit. I feel there was one to be had tonight. We put ourselves in position to have it and we couldn’t do what we needed to do to get it done.”

East Hampton had a few chances in the final two minutes but could not convert, the final chance being Denihan’s three-point attempt after Savino hit 1 of 2 free throws at the other end.

“We were trying to get something at the rim,” he said. “We had a couple of options off that inbounds play to try to get it there, they didn’t present [themselves]. We got the ball back out where we wanted it, then at that point as the clock is running down what you want to get is a rim attack, either force them to foul, force them to challenge … maybe you get some free throws out of it, maybe you lay one in and get fouled. The final shot is not what we had hoped for. Sometimes that’s how it goes with late-game execution.”

Despite the disappointment, Russell was pleased with the effort and the progress his team is showing. Though there was no victory to show for it, there were more positives.

“We’re learning to get ourselves in a position to win and we did that,” he said. “We made some progress tonight offensively. We were able to get some contributions from a lot of kids. A lot of positives, and the kids have to hang on to this. They have to believe they can compete when we play this way. We have to play this way, prepare this way and keep doing it.”

East Hampton got balanced scoring from its starters. Chasse led the team with 10 points, Denihan, Komarnicka and Zawodniak had eight each.

“Adrianna had a big-time game,” Russell said. “She continues to work her butt off on the offensive end. Defensively she was unbelievable, and rebounding she’s been coming on and on. Ashley had a lot of plus plays, did a good job helping on the boards. Sarah played a good, smart game out there, the kind of game I want a senior point guard to play. She really did a good job there … and I liked the intensity from everybody."

Rowley led the Cougars with 11 points. Shawna Skwarek added nine.

Next up for East Hampton is Valley Regional at 1 p.m. on Monday at home. H-K hosts Hyde on Monday at 1:30 p.m.

“I’m proud of them in a lot of respects,” Russell said. “We left it on the floor. There was no quit. There was no stop playing, no mailing it in. Again, a lot of steps forward.”