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01/13/2018 11:00 PMThe East Haven girls’ basketball team won all three of its games last week to achieve its first goal of clinching a spot in the Southern Connecticut Conference and Class M State tournaments. East Haven currently boats a record of 10-1 after defeating Hamden, Bassick, and Hillhouse in last week’s action.
“Those are our first two goals. Over the past four years, it seems to have happened in the first 10 games, which is nice, because it gets that out of the way, so we can work on our next goals,” said Anthony Russell, who recently earned his 100th victory as East Haven’s head coach. “We want to win our division, win the SCC, and win the State Tournament. Those are our goals every year. Some of those goals are a little lefty, but it’s the consistency that we want to accomplish each season.”
Coach Russell has been impressed with how his team has performed as a whole thus far this winter. With senior captain Olivia Coyle suffering an injury in the team’s third practice of the year, plenty of girls have had to step up for the Yellowjackets to get out to such a strong start. Along with Coyle, the senior captains for East Haven this season are Kylie Schlottman, Jess Stettinger, Marley Herard, and Haley Montesanto.
“We’re getting contributions from everyone. It seems like the scoring has been spread out where it’s Kylie [Schlottman] one night, McKenzie [Helms] the next, and then Alexis [Pendziwater] leading the way. Besides the scoring, Isabella [Ragaini], Haley [Montesanto], Marley [Herard], Jess [Stettinger], Taylor [Salato], and Erin [Curran] have all been infused in the rotation, and what they do might not show up in the box score, but it’s just as important,” Russell said. “Whether it’s rebounding, assists, or steals, they’re doing a lot of the things you don’t see in the paper, but I appreciate as a coach. All of our girls are important. No one person wins the game themselves. They all bring a unique piece, so everybody needs to come in and play their role. That will get us to a higher level.”
The Yellowjackets punched their postseason ticket by notching a 73-54 home victory against Hamden on Jan. 8. Helms had a great night shooting the ball and scored 24 points to lead the way. Schlottman scored 13 points, Ragaini scored 12, Herard scored 11 points, and Pendziwater added seven points as the Easties improved to 2-0 in the Quinnipiac Division
Two days later, East Haven visited Bassick for a non-conference contest and emerged with a 78-57 win. The Yellowjackets buried eight three-pointers as Schlottman and Helms both totaled 28 points each in the victory.
“We have a lot of kids that can shoot the ball. Some of our players are shooting 40 or 50 percent from the field,” Coach Russell said. “Shooting that well in games and playing well on both sides of the ball makes us a tough team.”
To close out the week, East Haven visited Hillhouse on Jan. 12 and prevailed 64-56. Schlottman, who was eight points shy of breaking East Haven’s all-time scoring record as of press time, recorded a game-high 24 points in the win. Pendziwater scored 19 and Helms added 15 points for East Haven.
The Yellowjackets have played great on both offense and defense thus far this season, but Coach Russell knows his team can still trim down the opposition’s point total as the season goes on.
“Defense has been our staple for the last few years. We’ve held team under 40 or in the low 40s, but this year, it’s hiked up a little bit. We are playing teams with more firepower, and an up-and-down pressure defense is prone to giving up a few easy baskets, but I think it’s a combo of the way we play and our lack of size that contributes to that, as well,” he said. “A positive, though, is we get after it defensively. We’re an active team.”
Another positive note for the Easties is that Coyle is on the verge of returning to practice. Russell thinks she has a chance to suit up for the game at Lauralton Hall on Friday. Jan. 19.
“She’s coming back. We obviously have to see how the knee feels and see how we can incorporate her into what we’re doing right now. We’re 11 games in, so we want to make sure it’s a seamless transition of putting her back into the mix,” Russell said. “She was an All-Area player last year, averaging 14 or 15 points per game with four or five assists. Infusing that into our team will hopefully make us that much better.”
Russell feels that getting these three recent wins against athletic teams can only boost his squad’s confidence. The coach added that it’s a testament to his team’s toughness that two of those victories came on the road.
“I think our three games this week kind of revealed a lot of things. The teams we played were athletic and two of the games were away and in difficult places to play. It really revealed the toughness of our girls. They don’t back down. They get after that,” Russell said. “We’re starting to develop our swagger where we feel we should win. We don’t want to be overconfident, but having confidence is important. I’m happy with how things unfolded this week.”