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01/16/2015 11:00 PMLooking for its first victory of the season, the Knights’ boys’ basketball team had the final possession of overtime with just five seconds left and a chance to tie or win its game versus East Hampton on Jan. 15. After Westbrook missed a three-pointer, sophomore guard Cory Muckle drained a shot just under the hoop, but it didn’t go in before the buzzer and Westbrook took a 45-43 home loss to the Bellringers.
The Knights held a 30-27 lead at the end the three quarters, however, they couldn’t stave off East Hampton’s surge in the fourth. After halting the Bellringers’ opportunity to win it in the final seconds of regulation, Westbrook fought hard in the extra four-minute quarter, yet came up short and dropped it second straight OT decision at home.
Westbrook fell to 0-7, but Head Coach Jeffrey Beeman feels confident that that his young team will rebound from the defeat. Thirteen days following their most-recent home contest and a week since their last game, the Knights showed the signs of a well-rested team that jumped to an early lead. Coach Beeman mentioned how well his squad played, although he noted that they have to get over the hump.
“It’s a young team. We’re playing a ton of sophomores that are making the jump from freshmen level to varsity level basketball,” said Beeman. “The intensity level, we haven’t been able to show that for 32 minutes, but we were closer tonight. A lot closer.”
The Knights scored six points in the first quarter, 10 points in the second, 14 in the third, eight in the fourth, and five in overtime. A time-of-possession battle was in effect in the opening frame as Westbrook ended it with a 6-5 lead. Missed opportunities from the Knights kept it a low-scoring contest at the end of the first half with a 16-14 advantage. Westbrook’s biggest lead was nine points at 25-16 with 5:27 left to play in the third quarter.
Westbrook’s defense contained East Hampton (4-5) in the first half, although the issue the Knights had throughout the contest was defending the three-point line as they gave up seven treys in the game.
“We knew that we had to defend the three-line and we didn’t do a great job,” said Beeman. “Of those 14 points in the first half, 12 of them were from threes.”
Westbrook junior captain guard Bradley Cates finished with a team-high 13 points and senior captain center Marty Marx added 10 points, five rebounds, and two blocks. Sophomore guard Liam Bell scored 10 and gathered seven rebounds while Muckle finished with six points and senior guard Ronnie Oldham contributed with four points.
“My guys played their hearts out and I have no problem with their effort level,” said Beeman. “Liam and Cory are our best-skilled basketball players. Ronnie came off the bench because he’s been with knee issues and he played pretty well.”
Marx is one of the few Knights’ players who brought experience from last season’s squad to assist this year’s team. Marx fouled out with 2:15 left in the fourth quarter and a three-point Westbrook lead intact. Marx’s presence was missing as East Hampton started taking control under the hoop and forced the game to overtime.
“He was having his best game of his year so far. He was rebounding the ball, he was contesting shots, he was putting the ball in the basket, and we kind of drop off a little bit to a couple sophomores,” Beeman said of Marx. “We had a couple rebound opportunities that he would probably secured that we weren’t able to secure.”
In the game’s home stretch, Muckle and Cates each hit jumpers to have the Knights up 35-30 with 3:45 left in the game before East Hampton scored five straight to tie it with 2:10 to go. Bell then hit a three to make it 38-35 with 1:42 remaining, but then the Bellringers used a basket-and-1 play to knot it up once again at 38-all, which was the score entering overtime.
At the subsequent practice following every contest, Coach Beeman employs a strategy that he’s used throughout his career with an aim to help his players improve on their game and, in this case, guide the Knights toward their first victory of the season.
“We do what we call ‘Upside-Downside’ after every game. We’ll talk about what we did well, we’ll talk about what we did poorly, and we’ll work on what we did poorly,” he said. “After we finish with ‘Upside-Downside, we call it ‘Closing the Door.’ We close the door on it and we move on to the next one. We’ll work on our skill sets, we’ll work on our effort levels, and try to get one on Saturday.”
Westbrook’s next game is a home contest versus Portland at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 17.