East Hampton Falls to Coginchaug

East Hampton’s sluggish start set the tone in its 59-50 loss to visiting Coginchaug Thursday night in a battle between two of the top teams in the Shoreline Conference.

Although the Bellringers scrambled back and held leads as late as early in the third quarter, they just couldn’t play consistently enough to avoid their second loss in the last three games. When the Blue Devils needed a big play to stem East Hampton’s momentum, they often got it.

Audrey Biesak made many of those pivotal plays. She scored a game-high 22 points for Coginchaug (16-3, 15-2 Shoreline), burning the Bellringers’ defense with five three-pointers.

Two free throws and a putback by Kelsey Booth, East Hampton’s leading scorer with 17 points, cut the Coginchaug lead to 49-41 with more than five-and-a-half minutes left in the game. Biesak responded by hitting a three to push the lead back to 11 points and the Bellringers’ rally stalled.

When a Booth layup made it 54-49 with 2:30 remaining, Lauren Esposito, who had 17 points, connected on a 20-footer for a 56-49 advantage and another rally-buster. Samantha Mancinelli (nine points) converted a one-and-one from the free-throw line to make it a nine-point deficit for East Hampton (13-4, 11-4 Shoreline) with 44 seconds to play. Biesak, Esposito and Mancinelli accounted for all but 11 of the Blue Devils’ points.

“This is a marked improvement by us from the first time we played them,” said East Hampton coach Shaun Russell. The Bellringers lost 58-38 on Dec. 23 in Coginchaug before reeling off 10 straight wins. “We were much closer to a full effort against them tonight.

“I was proud of their moxie, proud of their guts.”

East Hampton had trouble with the Blue Devils’ quickness. That led to many turnovers by the Bellringers and many easy baskets by Coginchaug, which won its seventh consecutive game. When they weren’t trying to run on East Hampton, the Blue Devils ran their half-court offense with precision.

“We were patient,” Coginchaug coach Rett Mancinelli said. “We took our time on offense and that helped us out quite a bit. We like to get quick baskets when we can.

“We worked really hard on defense. When we buckle down and focus on defense, we’re a pretty good team.”

Two other Bellringers also reached double digits. Sarah Denihan, with two three-pointers, scored 11 points and Klaudia Komarnicka, off the bench, added 10. The Bellringers also stayed competitive by making 13 of 16 free throws (81.3 percent).

Coginchaug opened a 9-4 lead in the first 5:30 of the first quarter. Baskets by Booth and Denihan made it 9-8 before the Blue Devils finished it with a 5-0 run for a 14-8 lead entering the second quarter. East Hampton outscored the Blue Devils 17-11 in the second quarter to forge a 25-25 tie at halftime.

“We were a step slow and a bit unfocused at the start,” Russell said. “But we had our best defensive segment of the game right after that and we didn’t let them get away from us. They easily could have been up by 10-0.”