Hall Starts Slowly in 53-30 Loss to Bulkeley

coach Bryan Moretti had no intention of sugar-coating what he had just seen.

He found few positives Wednesday night in the 53-30 drubbing the Warriors absorbed at the hands of Bulkeley in an interdivisional CCC game.

“We got manhandled for 32 minutes,” Moretti said. “They wanted the game more. They played harder than us. That’s as simple as it gets.”

The Bulldogs’ superior quickness manifested itself in several crucial ways. Their players consistently were able to beat the Hall defenders off the dribble. They were first to virtually every loose ball. Their quickness off the floor opened up a huge rebounding gap, which was particularly noticeable on the offensive boards.

A jumper from the lane by Tim McGeary with just under five minutes remaining in the first quarter pulled Hall to within 4-3 but Bulkeley ran off 10 straight points. On one possession, Rasard Miller scored on a putback that was Bulkeley’s third chance on the possession. The Bulldogs had five chances on one fourth-quarter trip.

“Sixty to seventy percent of their possessions they had a second-chance opportunity,” Moretti said. “It’s not like we didn’t play good ‘D’ on the initial possession but you have to score. Make a layup, you’ve got to make a three. It was hard to watch.”

The Warriors narrowed the gap to three points after hoops by Aidan Coll and Tom Honyotski in the first minute of the second quarter, the only hoops on successive possessions all night. But the Bulldogs turned up the defensive pressure, forced turnovers on four of the next five Hall trips and rattled off 11 straight points for a 25-11 lead.

Bulkeley didn’t score over the final 4:40 of the second quarter but Hall managed just four points during that stretch, leaving the halftime deficit at 10.

Lou LaPenna, the longtime Weaver coach, is trying to rebuild a program that was beset by offseason adversity.

“We had a couple kids transfer, one went to Nebraska and another went over to East Hartford,” he said. “One of our starters (Brian Starks, a bystander) got shot nine times and survived during the fall. We’ve tried to put things together on the fly.”

And their flight continued at the beginning of the second half. Three Hall turnovers led to an 11-2 run that built the Bulldogs’ lead to 19 with 3½ minutes to go in the third quarter.

Bulkeley guards Jonathan Wilson and Rodney McBride shared game scoring honors with 11 points. Center Quinto Mapp, who earned Moretti’s praise, scored just four points but blocked shots, made steals, yanked rebounds and dished out assists.

Coll had team highs in points (8) and rebounds (7) for Hall. Chib Uche and Sam Linabury had three steals apiece.

Hall visits Farmington Monday.

“We’ve got to get better in the next three days,” Moretti said. “We can be babies and feel sorry for ourselves or we can be competitors by competing with each other. There are no other options.”

Hall, which made just one field goal in the fourth quarter, shot 8-for-38 from the floor (21 percent) while the Bulldogs made 14 of 40 (35 percent). Bulkeley forced 22 turnovers.

Bulkeley 53, Hall 30

Bulkeley (1-0): Quinto Mapp 2 0-0 4, Jonathan Wilson 4 3-4 11, P.J. Williams 3 2-2 9, Marquise Woods 2 4-5 9, Rasard Miller 1 0-0 2, Anthony Butler 0 0-0 0, Rodney McBride 5 1-1 11, Kevin Ramos 1 1-2 4, Sam Weston 0 1-2 1, Wes Haughabook 1 0-0 2, Jamel Glenn 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 12-16 53.

Hall (0-1): Aidan Coll 2 4-6 8, Sam Linabury 1 0-0 2, Tim McGeary 1 0-0 2, Devin Ortiz 0 3-6 3, Chib Uche 0 0-0 0, Corey Roth 1 5-8 7, John Greenfield 0 2-2 2, Tom Honyotski 1 0-0 2, Dan Horowitz 2 0-0 4, JaVaughn Fisher 0 0-0 0, Sergeo Narvaez 0 0-0 0. Totals 8 14-22 30.

Bulkeley     14  11  11  17 – 53

Hall              7    8    7    8 – 30

Three-point goals: Williams, Woods, Ramos.