GMHS Runs Record to 5-0 with 73-31 Rout of Somers

The girls basketball team continued its strong start to the season, running its record to 5-0 with a 73-31 rout of North Central Connecticut Conference foe Somers in Granby on Monday evening.

Senior guard Kristen Endorf led the Bears with a game-high 18 points, while senior forward Haley Makuch and senior guard Michelle Guttermuth each chipped in nine points for Granby Memorial, which won its fifth consecutive game by at least 14 points. Julia Mazzotta and Krista Iwanicki each submitted seven points as well for the Bears.

Yet despite the 42-point margin of victory, Granby Memorial head coach Dean Godin wasn’t necessarily satisfied with his team’s performance.

“We played well in spurts,” Godin said. “I thought we shot the ball really well. We’ve had some success shooting the basketball; we’ve put a lot of hard work into it. … I thought, especially at the beginning of the game, we weren’t as intense as we normally are.

“We didn’t get many stoppages of play to sub, so when we don’t get that momentum to sub, which sounds weird, but that’s how we build momentum, by getting in and out, in and out. We can struggle a little bit.”

Indeed, in Granby Memorial trailed Somers (0-4) 6-5 with 4:21 left in the first quarter following Somers’ Hailee Stetson’s free throw. The Bears took command of the game, however, with an 11-0 run to end the quarter to take a 16-6 lead on a 3-pointer from Kylynn Kane (eight points total), a lay in by Kane off an offensive rebound, a 3-pointer from Endorf and a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Emily Stone.

The lights-out shooting continued in the second quarter, as Endorf scored 11 points in the following eight minutes as Granby Memorial opened up a gaping 42-14 lead at halftime. Makuch also grabbed most of her seven rebounds in the first half, gritty play from a guard that Godin credited for keeping Granby Memorial ahead in the game.

“I thought [Haley Makuch] and especially Kristen …. put us on their backs  when we were struggling for a little while … and really did a nice job for us,” Godin said.

Even with the multiple blowout victories, Godin sees things on which the Bears can improve going forward.

“I like what I potentially see,” Godin said. “We need to get better every single day. I can’t feel like we’re regressing at any point. I didn’t feel like we put together effort-wise, the full game tonight.

Specifically, Godin said that he believed that the game would have looked a lot different had Diandra DeRosa, Somers’ best player who sat out due to injury, had been on the floor.

“There’s no doubt in my mind; that kid is a special player and she makes the kids around her that much better,” Godin said of DeRosa. “If they have her tonight, if we bring that kind of focus, that could have been a different game. She’s a one-man press break.”

Somers head coach Alan Walker, for his part, partially agreed with Godin, stating that while his team was depleted due to injury, his team was also struggling with inexperience and some mental lapses.

“We’ve definitely hit the injury bug,” Walker said. “I’m pleased with the physical effort. The mental effort is what we have to work on. We know we are struggling on offense without DeRosa, but we should be able to put together a better effort on offense, and that’s where we’re hurting right now.”

But he also said that Granby Memorial would have been difficult to beat at full strength given how well the Bears shot from the field.

“There were at least eight or nine contested shots tonight that they hit,” Walker said. “If they shoot like that, they’re going to go a long way in this conference, I’ll tell you that. .. Give them credit. The Granby kids have paid their dues. The group of kids they have as seniors, they’ve paid their dues in this conference for three years. If they can play like that, they will do very well in this conference and the state tournament.”

Somers was led by Kylen O'Hearn and Samantha Urban, who each had seven points.

Granby Memorial is scheduled to face East Granby High tonight at 7 p.m. on the road, while Somers will have its first home game against Wilcox Tech on Thursday at 7 p.m.