Eagles Toppled Bobcats With A Little Help From Free Throw Woes

There actually was a kernel of bad news Saturday for East Catholic in the Eagles’ 53-34 victory over South Windsor on Senior Appreciation Day.

They sent the Bobcats to the foul line for 42 shots. The good news for East Catholic was that South Windsor missed 24 of those shots in their CCC North game, shooting 42.9 percent. And for further cheer for the Eagles, they limited South Windsor to eight field goals and no three-pointers.

“They’re aggressive,” South Windsor coach Don Leclerc said. “Our plan was to attack them and get the ball inside and to get to the foul line. We just did not knock them down. That hurt us. That was the whole game.

“The game plan was good, the execution by the kids was, too. We just decided to pick a bad night to not be able to make shots from the line.”

Taryn Roy scored 16 points and Lauren Pachesa added 10 for East Catholic (14-5), which has won two in a row after a two-game losing streak. No South Windsor player could reach double figures. Emily Johnston’s seven points was the team high for South Windsor (8-10). Maxine Offiaeli and Savanna Gray each added six points.

East Catholic coach Al Lewis was not pleased with South Windsor’s parade to the free-throw line.

“Some of that definitely was due to the fact that we were out of position, particularly in the first half,” said Lewis. “A lot of it was positioning and elbowing. They played hard. They were aggressive. Obviously, we want to keep teams off the foul line because some teams can hurt you from there.”

Ordinarily South Windsor would be one of those teams, one an opposing coach wouldn’t want to see as a fixture at the line.

“We’ve been in that 70 percent range,” said Leclerc, who acknowledged this was South Windsor’s worst game of the season at the line – worst percentage and most misses. “You are not going to beat teams unless you make 7 of 10 foul shots. We make a habit of shooting free throws every day.

“We gave away a game to one of the best teams in the conference from the free-throw line.”

Two players were immune to the foul-shooting plague. Allie Hill, a reserve, went 4-for-4 and Johnston shot 7-for-10. The rest of the team was a combined 3 of 28 (10.7 percent).

The free-throw woes were not immediate. Johnston made a pair in the Bobcats’ first trip to the line. Their next time there, Christine Rozzie, one of two freshman starters for South Windsor, made one of two. Then they missed six of their next seven and the funk had begun to spread through the team.

Few of the foul calls by the official left Lewis irate. Lewis saw how the barrage of fouls could help his team learn. “We need to bring the level of our physicality up to play teams that are this feisty,” he said.

East Catholic (8-4 CCC North) opened a 13-5 lead after the first quarter and brought a 29-14 lead into halftime. Another strong quarter in the third made it 46-24 entering the fourth quarter.

The game lacked flow with all the interruptions to the foul line. The fouls came in all varieties but the most popular was reaching in.

The East Catholic gym was not a shooter-friendly zone. The Eagles were 8 of 14 (57.1 percent) from the foul line. East Catholic shot 20 of 67 (29.9) from the floor.

The first time these teams met, the Eagles earned a 74-34 victory in South Windsor.