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01/06/2015 11:00 PMGirls' Basketball
Morgan hosted North Branford on Dec. 22 and raced to a 73-29 victory before a 51-48 road win on Dec. 30 against Cromwell and a 79-15 triumph hosting Portland on Jan. 3 to move to 6-0.
Against North Branford, the Huskies had four scorers in double figures in Tori Hopkins (15 points), Jen Dawson (14), Sami Ashton (12), and Josie Sullivan (11).
Facing Cromwell, Ashton led Huskies' scorers with 15 points to go along with her three rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Dawson added 11 points, plus Hopkins scored 10 and dished out six assists. Sullivan also reeled in 14 boards.
Taking on Portland, Ashton led with 21 points to complement her four rebounds, seven assists, and five steals. Hopkins added 19 tallies, plus Dawson scored 17. Sullivan also contributed with six boards, seven assists, and seven steals.
Boys' Basketball
Morgan defeated Portland at home 65-53 on Jan. 2 for its first victory of the campaign. Prior to that, the Huskies (1-3) suffered a close 56-54 loss at home to North Branford on Dec. 23 following road defeats to Cromwell (59-52 on Dec. 20) and Haddam-Killingworth (73-53 on Dec. 18).
Against the T-Birds, Dylan Ketch tallied 19 points (8-for-8 on 2-point field goals), along with five rebounds, four assists, and two steals; Mike Murray added nine points, six boards, and three assists; plus Evan Barillaro tacked on eight points and 13 rebounds. Morgan went into halftime with a seven-point lead, but in the third quarter, the visitors outscored Morgan 23-10 and hit the game winning shot with a rebound put-back at the buzzer.
"I felt sick for the boys tonight. We certainly did not help ourselves with a miserable shooting night and a dreadful third quarter, though," said Beeman. "Playing hard is never an issue for this group, but making smart decisions with the ball and being patient on offense has been a challenge this season and tonight was no exception. It didn't matter what defense we tried. We just could not keep North Branford in front of us and then couldn't keep them off the boards. We have a lot of work to do to get better."
At Cromwell, Gabe Eriksen led the Huskies' scorers on 14 points, along with three rebounds and three steals; Murray collected 11 points and six boards; and Ketch finished with 11 points and four rebounds. Morgan led 29-27 at the break and was tied with the Panthers at 41 following three frames. The fourth quarter saw Cromwell get to the free throw line 15 times, making 10 of them, while Morgan hit two of four attempts and that was the difference in the game.
"Heading to Cromwell has not been kind to Morgan in a very long time. We knew they lost a ton of talent to graduation, but also realized Cromwell tends to reload—not rebuild." said Beeman. "It was going to take a great effort to win, which we did not have and, in the end, 19 turnovers is too many and our inability to secure a defensive rebound really hurt."
On opening night at HK, Murray came through for 14 points and half-a-dozen rebounds; Alan Esposito gathered 11 points and two steals; and Ketch battled for 14 points, three boards, and two assists. The Cougars took a 30-27 lead into halftime and the third quarter saw HK burst out for 26 tallies on its way to the victory.
"I thought the boys played very hard in a physical, intense, and emotional game," said Beeman. "When it came down to it, we had no answer for [HK's] Hunter Czaja, no matter what we threw at him and HK."
Fencing
The Huskies have had two matches thus far on their campaign. First against North Branford on Dec. 16, girls' varsity won 12-4 with Amanda Thompson going 4-0 while the boys took a 5-4 victory as Dan Ayotte went 3-0 on the evening.
Two days later versus Marine Science Magnet, the girls prevailed 8-1 with Caleigh Heske and Nola Neri both earning 3-0 records in the winning effort. The boys took an 8-1 defeat.
"Boys varsity is a very young squad after graduating four seniors last year, in addition to a season-ending injury to senior captain Andrew Tran during the soccer season," said Coach James Barnett. "We are hoping for good things from this young squad as the season progresses."