SMSA Pulls Away from East Granby 61-39

For one quarter, the girls basketball team went toe-to-toe with Sports Medical Sciences Academy and its exquisite center, Morgan Murphy, on Friday evening in East Granby.

Indeed, the inside combination of Kara Dumas and Meredith Vanags held Murphy, who is headed to SUNY Binghamton next fall, in check, helping the Crusaders to a 15-11 lead after the first period.

“We knew this Murphy kid was a tough player,” East Granby head coach Tim Doherty said. “We devised a couple of schemes to double up on her when she got the ball down low.”

Dumas got into foul trouble at the end of the first quarter, enabling Murphy (23 points) and company to take over the game, which included a 12-0 run to start the second period, to cruise to a 61-39 victory in an North Central Connecticut Conference matchup.

One of the keys was free throw shooting, as the Tigers went 14 for 17 from the line in the first half, with Murphy going 6 for 7, to open a 28-19 advantage at halftime.

“I think Kara if anybody can battle [Murphy] one on one … and we were fine until we got into foul trouble,” Doherty said. “We broke down and our inexperience showed. … We were trying to get [Murphy] frustrated, and to her credit, she didn’t get frustrated.”

Nicole Evanko scored 14 points for SMSA in the winning effort, while Kayla Mercer had 13, Alison Mosdale and Kiana Smith had four each and Taylor Fascione added three.

SMSA head coach Karl Denfeld, for his part, was impressed with East Granby’s play in the opening period.

“[East Granby] actually out-executed us and outplayed us definitely the first quarter and maybe the whole half,” Denfeld said. “They obviously came to play and we didn’t initially. … I’ve got to give them a ton of credit. They made all their shots and saw some of the weaknesses in our zone.”

The Tigers, who are in their first season in the NCCC, improved their record to 8-1 and have hopes of competing for a top position in the conference.

“We play Ellington next week, and they’re undefeated,” Denfeld said. “Granby has already beaten us. … We should be in the top half. We have the ability to play with those teams. We’ll have to see if we’ll be able to beat them.”

Dumas paced the Crusaders (3-5) with 14 points, while Eileen Dempsey had five and Samantha Daleb, Haylee Kulig and Casey Tobin each had four.

“We’re trying to find our identity,” Doherty said. “We’re a young team. Some of these teams, [SMSA], they’re 8-1 and they aren’t playing a cupcake schedule. They’ve got some quality wins against some very good teams.”

With that said, Doherty was encouraged with what he has seen from his young charges.

“We’re getting there,” he said. “If we can just put that first quarter in a bottle, we’ve got to play like that all the time.”

Both teams will play on Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m, with East Granby facing Avon at home, while SMSA will square off against Canton on the road.