E.O. Smith Boys Basketball Can't Handle Press Defense on Senior Night

For more than half of the game, it looked like the boys basketball team was going to upset Hartford Public on the Panther's Senior Night. Then the Owls started pressing.

“We were turning up the intensity,” said Hartford Public coach Kurt Reis.

The pressure defense helped the Owls close out the third quarter on a 9-0 run and take the lead for good en route to a 57-46 CCC East Division win. Hartford Public improved to 15-1 on the season, while the Panthers dropped to 12-4.

Following a Daylon Ore three point play with under three minutes remaining in the third quarter, sophomore Carter Chatey, who entered the game with a 41.7 3-point shooting percentage, gave E.O. Smith a 28-27 lead with a shot from beyond the arc. It would be the Panthers' last basket of the quarter. Hartford Public's defensive pressure made it difficult for E.O. Smith to get the rock past half-court.

“The press did us,” said senior point guard Min Lin. “It trapped us in the corner, forced turnovers and turn the game around the other way...Especially down the stretch, we made a lot of mistakes.”

Lin returned to the starting lineup Thursday after missing the previous three games with a sprained left ankle. Lin was honored with the other five seniors on the squad, Craig Hodgins, Jacob Jordan, Alec Malecki, John Mindek and John Rup, prior to the game.

“I wanted to play on Senior Night,” Lin said. “It was probably the biggest game of the season. If we won this we would've shared the conference title.”

“Min's a tough guy,” E.O. Smith coach Ron Pires said. “He played a very good three quarters of basketball...I take my hat off to him because he played hard.”

Lin led the team with 16 points. Matt Taimin added 13 and Chatey scored eight points. The Owls countered, however, with double-digit efforts from four players. Ebrahim Jallow led the team with 14 points and Derrick Guy notched 12. Ore and Winston Morgan each dropped in 11 points.

Lin had six points in the first quarter, drawing a foul at the buzzer on a 3-point attempt. After making all three shots, the game was tied 8-8 after one quarter. On the first possession of the second quarter, Taimin hit a 3-pointer to give the Panthers an 11-8 lead.

At the 5:06 mark, Reis was hit with a technical and Lin hit both free throws to stretch the lead to six. Taimin then hit a 3-pointer on the possession to make the score 19-10. Hartford Public made a dent in the lead, heading into the half down 22-17.

“They're the type of team that wants to control the tempo,” Reis said. “It becomes a half-court game in their favor. We wanted to get up and down the floor.”

Smith self-destructed in the final quarter. After getting the lead to as close as eight points, an E.O. Smith assistant was called for a technical. Hartford Public maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way, getting ahead by as much as 15 points.

Pires said the Owl press got them tired and showed the Panthers' lack of depth. He expected a better performance out of his big men, but took positives from E.O. Smith's competitiveness.

“We learned a lot,” Pires said. “We are capable of playing against good teams...We played well in the first two quarters, started slow in the third, then picked it up, then ran out of gas.”

The loss snapped the Panthers' seven-game win streak. E.O. Smith finishes out the regular season on the road at Fermi, Windham, New Britain and Tolland. The first three road trip games span from next Tuesday to next Friday.

“If we can get through that week, I'll be happy," Pires said.