Green Dragon Basketball Nips North Haven 44-42

Hamden topped North Haven in a Friday afternoon nail-biter.

Each team had their troubles shooting during the contest but it was the Hamden Green Dragons who prevailed over the North Haven Indians 44-42 in their Southern Connecticut Conference Interdivision matchup. 

“They hit the shots when they needed them, and we didn’t,” said North Haven Coach Pete Civitello.

Hamden began the game on a 12-0 run including two three-pointers from Richard Kennedy, who also added two fast break layups for 10 of his team-high 12 points on the night.  The Indians came right back after a time-out with an 11-2 run of their own, highlighted by Billy McDonald's slam dunk on a fast break. McDonald had a game-high 18 points.

The second quarter began with Hamden leading 17-13 in favor of Hamden. Both teams had trouble connecting on shots, with only two field goals hit in the entire quarter. With his team down 19-15, the Indians’ Stephen McCarthy swooshed a jumper from the left wing with 1:23 left to bring the Indians within 2 points of the lead. McDonald then drove the lane on the next possession and connected on a floater with 30 seconds left to tie the game at 19-19. The Dragons answered with a late deuce to walk off with a 21-19 upper-hand at intermission.

“Great game! Whenever we come to North Haven we always have a game like this, every year,” Hamden Coach Jared Beck said.

Each team came out firing in the third quarter. A couple of Hamden jumpers from Wes Johnson (10 points) were answered by Dominic Schioppo of North Haven, who recorded two steals and two fast-break layups.  Schioppo finished with 11 points. Josh Lopez hit a wide open jumper from the baseline to bring North Haven within one point (29-28) with 1:33 left in the quarter.  The two SCC rivals would head into the fourth quarter with Hamden leading 33-32.

The game remained close into the final session. Up one point (37-36) with three minutes remaining, Antonio Lucky got on the board with a tough lay-up underneath the basket to increase the Dragon lead to 39-36.  Schioppo came back with a three on the very next shot to tied the game at 39 with 2:45 to go in the game. With the Green Dragons up 43-42 with 27.2 seconds left in the fourth quarter, a travel call on McDonald turned the ball over to Hamden. Johnson would go to the line and connect on 1-of-2 free throws to give Hamden the 44-42 lead with 11.2 seconds remaining.  After a rebound on the missed free throw by McDonald, the Indians drove down the court in an attempt to tie the game and send it to overtime, but Schioppo got tied up with a Hamden defender outside the 3-point line as the final buzzer went off.

“Each team had a chance to win the game," said Coach Beck. "I do not think we did anything better than them on the day, but the ball just happened to bounce our way once or twice.”

McDonald scored a game-high 18 points and Schioppo added 11 for NHHS.

Each team now stands with a record of 3-7.