The East Haven girls’ basketball team returned to postseason action again this winter, capping a 13-7 regular season with a pair of home games in both the SCC and state tournaments. Although the Yellowjackets were defeated in first round action in both brackets with a 55-52 loss to Amity in SCCs and a 50-39 loss to Guilford in the Class L tourney, Head Coach Anthony Russell felt it was important for the program to earn those two playoff contests on its home floor.

“I think in girls’ basketball playing on your home court is definitely an advantage and I think more so in our gym because it’s tough for teams to shoot in our gym because of the depth perception. We don’t have a wall that’s right up against our basket. There’s a lot of area and there are bleachers behind it. It’s a big floor, too. I think it’s an advantage and it was important to get home court advantage in both of those,” Russell said. “However, we ended up being on the losing side of both, but it wasn’t because we didn’t prepare or the girls didn’t work hard or play well. I just think we ran into an Amity team that was hot at the end of the season and Guilford was more athletic than us.”

East Haven put itself in a position to play those at home with its great second half of the season. After a 5-5 start, East Haven won eight of its final 10 games, including its last seven, to close out the regular season.

“I felt like we grew exponentially. We also shot the ball a lot better the second of half of the year. We were 8-2 in the last 10 games of the regular season and I think our margin of victory in those games was something like 18 points,” Russell said. “I would say the best accomplishment I saw this year was that we kept continually getting better both individually and as a team. We started to see athletes really starting to come into their own.”

One of those athletes was junior Miranda Gladwin, who could line up at either guard or forward and had her way offensively down the stretch with multiple 20-point nights.

“She can score a lot of points,” Russell said. “I just think that once she got to a certain comfort level and stopped pressing so much and let the game come to her, we saw some better results from her.”

Kylie Schlottman also provided a boost to elevate the Yellowjackets to their 13 victories by averaging a team-high 13.4 points per game. The freshman forward earned East Haven’s Most Valuable Player Award, along with making the All-SCC Oronoque Team and New Haven Register All-Area.

“Kylie is ahead of the curve in a lot of things. She does well academically, she does well athletically, and I think socially she’s ahead of the curve, too,” Russell said. “She’s a really savvy kid and she was a huge part of our success this year. It’s not that often that a freshman comes in and averages a double-double. She’s going to be a very key component for us going forward in the next three years.”

East Haven’s five seniors claimed the rest of the team awards. Forwards Angela Ranciato, Sunny Ravert, and Jessica Cima all received the Sportsmanship Award and captain guards Tori Carlson and Jessica Benevento both took the Coaches’ Award. Benevento, who also was selected to the All-SCC Oronoque squad, and Carlson were both huge parts of Russell’s squad.

“Being captains of the team, they’re like coaches out there. They played at a high level for most of the time that they’ve been in the program. They’re a big part of the organizational process of the team and getting the girls ready to go every day,” he said. “We’re definitely going to miss Tori because she brings a high energy level to both practice and games and she was a one-man press breaker. Jess averaged double digits this year and, defensively, they were both great.”

Looking to next season, Russell is hoping that with three returning starters in Schlottman, Gladwin, and junior guard Cailey Korwek, that the right pieces will develop around them to continue the recent success of East Haven girls’ basketball.

“Hopefully, we can have people come in and step into those roles next year and I think we’re going to. There are a lot of kids that can play at a varsity level,” he said. “If we can run 10-12 girls, the more up-tempo we can play. The fresher we can keep our impact players and build experience for those younger kids, the more they’ll be ready for when they come up and are going into that role where they’re playing a lot of minutes. I think the future looks bright.”