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Cougars Clawed Their Way to the Playoffs

The 2019-’20 season was shaping up to be a rebuilding year for the Haddam-Killingworth boys’ basketball team. The Cougars had graduated four starters, including 1,000-point scorer Matt Willis, from last year’s eight-win team that qualified for states. On top of that, H-K had a difficult non-conference schedule and started off the campaign by losing eight of its first 11 games.

However, the Cougars proved a resilient bunch and went on to win five of their next eight contests on their way to qualifying for both the Shoreline Conference Tournament and the Division V State Tournament. And they did it while shooting an abundance of 3-pointers—attempting nearly 30 treys per game.

H-K finished the year with an overall record of 8-14. After the regular season, the Cougars took a 58-47 loss to Valley Regional in the Shoreline quarterfinals, followed by a 65-52 defeat against Watertown in the first round of states.

The Cougars led by senior captains Trey Callender and Sam Erskine this year. Giacomo Volpicelli, Evan Fleig, and Colin O’Brien were the other seniors who competed for Head Coach Jim Abbott’s squad.

“We had five seniors play an important role in our resurgence,” said Abbott, who completed his third year as H-K’s head coach. “Giacomo was our leading scorer at 15.1 points per game and hit an amazing 73 3-point field goals in 20 games. Trey and Sam were our two senior captains, and Evan and Colin were two hard-nosed seniors who contributed a lot to our success.”

Coach Abbott said that H-K’s 65-63 home win over Shoreline Conference rival Morgan served as the turning point of his team’s season. The Cougars got a big lift from an up-and-coming freshman in order to edge out a Huskies’ club that wound up advancing to the Shoreline final. H-K followed up that win by notching victories versus St. Paul (63-62), Coginchaug (75-66 in double overtime), and North Branford (81-70).

“Freshman Mason Gorham, who became a starter about a third of the way into the season, averaged 10.8 points per game and shot a lights-out 47 percent from the field, including a 3-pointer with one second left to beat conference giant Morgan for our most signature win of the season,” Abbott said. “The Morgan win made the team believe they could beat a good team. That put us on a string of four wins in five games, including a win against a talented St. Paul team.”

While Gorham and the five seniors made a big impact, Coach Abbott also raved about the juniors who competed for H-K this season. The Cougars’ junior class included All-Shoreline Conference honoree Jimmy McGoey, along with Alec Erskine, Tony Giambanis, and Chase O’Linn.

“Jimmy averaged 12.9 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per game. He was named Second Team All-Conference,” said Abbott. “Alec, Tony, and Chase were also key contributors to our team.”

Coach Abbott feels that H-K is set up for a double-digit win season, as well as return berths to the Shoreline and State tournaments next year. While 3-pointers were key for the Cougars this winter, Abbott is expecting them to expand their offensive repertoire in the 2020-’21 campaign.

“We have a talented senior class that should lead the way, but we lived and died by the three this year. We will still be a very good shooting team from three, but I see us mixing it up more,” Abbott said. “Our offense lends itself to the 3-point shot, but our All-Conference player is a big man. We are going to want to feed him as much as possible.”