East Hampton Puts Away North Branford

East Hampton jumped out to an early lead and pulled away from North Branford in the second and third quarters en route to a 60-50 victory Friday night at home.

It was the third win in a row for the Bellringers, who are one victory shy of qualifying for the postseason with five games remaining.

East Hampton coach Parker Strong was pleased with getting the win, but with the regular season rapidly coming to a close and a difficult stretch of games remaining on the schedule, found reason for concern in his team’s play and didn’t hide it.

“We have to get better,” the Bellringers’ first-year coach said. “We won, which is obviously good, but we’re still making too many mistakes. I think some of us are just a little happy to win a game than to play well.”

After a close first quarter, East Hampton (7-8) put some distance between itself and the Thunderbirds in the second, closing the half strong.

Kyle Adams found Matt Vasquenza underneath for a basket and a 23-13 lead. Colin Parks made it a 12-point game off a nice assist from Vasquenza and Adams closed out the first-half scoring with a nice putback to make it 27-16.

Adams and fellow senior Jeff Pratt dominated the paint for East Hampton, scoring 20 and 17 points respectively.  Part of the reason for the mismatch inside was because North Branford was playing without its big man, Nick Fragola. Fragola had 13 points and nine rebounds against the Bellringers in the first meeting between the teams on Jan. 12, a game won by East Hampton, 55-51.

As well as Adams and Pratt played, Fragola’s absence was an opportunity Strong felt his team could have exploited more.

“I know Kyle had 20 and Pratt had 17, they could have had more,” said Strong, adding that his team hasn’t done well to take advantage of opportunities that they have been presented with during the season. “We didn’t look inside enough.”

East Hampton built a 30-16 lead early in the third quarter before North Branford went on a 10-2 run to cut its deficit to 32-26.

A basket by Adams and a fastbreak layup by Vasquenza quickly settled things for the Bellringers, starting a 14-5 run of their own to take a commanding 46-31 lead into the fourth quarter.

A basket by Pratt and a nice steal by Nate Heroux at midcourt that he took in for a layup gave East Hampton its biggest lead at 50-31. North Branford didn’t threaten after that, but three three-pointers, including two by Jordan Bognar, allowed the Thunderbirds, a team now with a 3-12 record and losers of seven straight games, to hang around and at least make the score respectable, which frustrated Strong.

“There is some things we did really well tonight but there were still a lot of things we need to correct,” he said. “We scored 60 points but we gave up 50.

“We just need to focus better.”

Vasquenza added nine points and Spencer Daly had six for East Hampton.

“Spencer Daly has given us a big lift,” said Strong, who recently moved the senior into the starting lineup. “He’s responded really well. He hasn’t turned the ball over much. He’s a good shooter. He really helps us on the offensive end and he’s really aggressive defensively.

“He made some big plays against Hale-Ray. Helped get us to overtime and we took it from there. I’m really proud what he’s been able to fight through and earn more minutes, and in those minutes he’s been productive. It’s been a good thing to see.”

Strong also singled out the play of Vasquenza, his sophomore point guard.

“Vasquenza did a great job,” he said. “He only scored nine but he had seven assists and six rebounds.

According to Strong, in the last six games Vasquenza has had 34 rebounds.

“That’s incredible,” he said. “He just gets his nose in there.”

Bognar led North Branford with 13 points. Ricky Paolini added 12.

Next up for East Hampton is Cromwell on the road on Tuesday. Haddam-Killingworth, Coginchaug and Valley Regional also are on the schedule, meaning the Bellringers have the four top teams in the Shoreline Conference still to play, and all but H-K are away games. A home game against Morgan on Senior Night rounds out the schedule.

It is a formidable stretch of games to say the least, one which will ultimately determine whether the Bellringers are postseason worthy.