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02/23/2018 11:00 PMThe East Haven girls’ basketball team had the opportunity to play in the SCC Tournament final on its home floor last week, but unfortunately for the Yellowjackets, they took a 64-40 defeat against Mercy at East Haven High School on Feb. 21. The 2nd-seeded Easties moved to 20-3 with the loss, while top-seeded Mercy claimed its fourth conference championship in the past five seasons with the victory.
The game marked the Yellowjackets’ first appearance in the SCC Tournament final in program history. Despite the defeat, Head Coach Anthony Russell feels proud of his team for making a run through the tournament by winning close contests against Career and Hand to reach the championship game.
“It was emotional getting here. We won two games—one in the quarters in overtime by two and the other on the buzzer-beater the other night against two really good teams,” said Russell, whose team is competing in the Class M State Tournament starting this week. “I’m not disappointed that we lost. Of course, you want to compete and win, but I’m proud of the girls regardless of the outcome tonight.”
Mercy jumped out to an early advantage in the SCC final, although the Yellowjackets hung around, and the two teams went into halftime just five points apart with Mercy up 22-17. However, the third quarter was a completely different story as Mercy bolted out to a 17-0 run coming out of the locker room, keeping East Haven off the scoreboard for the first six minutes of the period. Mercy wound up outscoring the Yellowjackets 26-6 in the third and coasted to the victory from there.
“It seemed like we couldn’t get anything going at all, and it seemed every time they came down, they got something,” Coach Russell said. “I burned a couple of timeouts to draw some things up to keep us in striking distance, but it just didn’t happen tonight.”
Mercy’s Bella Santoro scored a game-high 24 points, while Meghan Deville netted 19 points on her way to being named the Most Valuable Player of the SCC Tournament for the Tigers.
Senior Kylie Schlottman scored 22 points, and junior McKenzie Helms had 13 points for East Haven. As a team, the Yellowjackets hit just one 3-pointer in the game that came from Alexis Pendziwater at the close of the third quarter. Prior to the game, Schlottman was named the SCC’s Most Outstanding Player for the second consecutive season.
“I thought [Mercy] did a good job on [Helms] defensively, barring down on her and Kylie. They took open looks away, as well,” said Russell. “They’re a well-coached team with a lot of pieces. We came out and competed, but unfortunately, we came out on the losing end.”
Previously, in the SCC semifinals, East Haven won a thrilling game against No. 3 Hand and defending conference champion on Feb. 19. Helms hit a jumper with 5.3 seconds left to lift the Easties to a 56-55 victory after Hand had hit a bucket to take a one-point lead with 29 seconds to play. Schlottman finished with a game-high 24 points, while Helms dropped 22 points for the Yellowjackets, who buried six 3-pointer sin the victory.
“The whole game was unbelievable. I’ve already watched the film two or three times, and it was just 32 minutes of fast-paced basketball. They would go up, we would go up, and then they would go up. The last minute was no different,” Coach Russell said. “We took a lead, they took a lead, and then we came down and buried a shot to put us up. They had an opportunity to win it, but missed at the buzzer. It was a really great game to be involved in and, after watching it and looking back, it must’ve been a great game to watch, too.”
East Haven now prepares for the Class M State Tournament. East Haven is the No. 2 seed and will open up the tourney by playing host to the winner of No. 31 Platt Tech (9-11) or No. 34 Woodland (8-12) in a first-round contest at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 26. If the Yellowjackets win, they will play at home against the winner of No. 15 seed Plainfield or No. 18 Prince Tech in the second round on Thursday, March 1. The quarterfinals take place on Friday, March 5; the semis are on Friday, March 9; and the championship game takes place at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville on either Saturday, March 17 or Sunday, March 18.
“I think the upper bracket is a little more concentrated with teams that are really good,” Russell said. “Looking at our bracket, I think we can fare pretty well if we work hard at practice and get out there and play like we normally we do and connect on some shots, unlike tonight.”
From the Sidelines
East Haven’s SCC Tournament roster consisted of senior captains Kylie Schlottman, Haley Montesanto, Olivia Coyle, Marley Herard, and Jessica Stettinger; juniors Makenzie Helms and Jamie Gallo; sophomores Isabella Ragaini and Alexis Pendziwater; and freshmen Erin Curran, Angelina Munoz, and Taylor Salato.
Head Coach Anthony Russell is assisted by Jeff Crisafi, Alyssa Guarino, and Cathy Celotto.