No. 1 Hamden holds off late charge by No. 3 Mercy

MIDDLETOWN — The sixth lead change of the fourth quarter went in Hamden’s favor when junior Leah Philpotts scored underneath, was fouled and made the free throw. What the Green Dragons, who led by three, needed most now was a stop and another score to put Mercy at arm’s length on Friday night.

Gianna Donnarummo had just the right idea of how to do it. After the Tigers missed two free throws and turned the ball over on a tie-up, the 5-foot-4 junior guard had possession in the corner and two choices.

“The way I saw it, I had the baseline and I had my teammate (Kamora Moore) in the corner, but I felt like I had a good angle to get the ball up,” Donnarummo said.

Instead of skipping a pass to an uncovered Moore, Donnarummo drove hard with her left hand, switched to her right and reversed the layup, bumping Hamden’s lead to five. The electrifying play put a charge into the top-ranked Green Dragons and created the space they needed to outlast the third-ranked Tigers 48-44 in a Coaches vs. Cancer Southern Connecticut Conference battle at Xavier’s Art Kohs Gymnasium.

“Nothing comes easy and that’s OK,” coach Amanda Forcucci said after Hamden improved to 11-0 with its fourth win this season by four or fewer points.

“Gianna is tough and she was falling away on that shot,” Forcucci added. “She jumped up and the crowd is going crazy. Kamora’s three-point play was a defining moment, too. They made a run at us and we were able to quiet them.”

Mercy coach Tim Kohs hinted that the sequence of baskets from Philpotts and Donnarummo changed the complexion of the game.

“I thought we had them bottled up a couple of times where maybe you could see in their eyes where I thought they were in trouble,” he said, “and there were a couple of times we could’ve forced them into a turnover. And then you lose the kid baseline and she whoop-de-do’d and made a play when she had to make a play.”

Still, Mercy (7-2) didn’t go away after Donnarummo boosted Hamden’s advantage with 2:04 left. Senior Sophie Hedge, who led all scorers with 15 points, made two free throws with 1:48 to go, but a quick score in the post by Gianna Robert from a feed by Donnarummo pushed the Green Dragons’ lead back to five at 43-38.

The Tigers lost the ensuing possession when sophomore Mercedes Artaiz was called for an offensive foul at the 3-point line with 1:22 left.

Hamden spread the floor to try to milk the final 60 seconds, with a Robert free throw giving her team a 44-38 lead with 38.9 seconds on the clock. A 3-pointer by Hedge with 27 seconds left brought the Tigers back into a one-possession game, but Donnarummo struck again with four free throws in four attempts — Hamden shot just 50 percent as a team — in the final 23.5 seconds.

Moore and Robert led Hamden with 11 points apiece. Donnarummo finished with eight points.

“I feel like when it comes to these types of games, when the stands are full and everyone’s there, we’re meant for the moment,” she said. “I feel like we just do a good job of keeping our composure.”

Mercy outscored the Green Dragons 13-8 in the first quarter, with Melina Ford’s drive to the basket beating the final buzzer. The Tigers got stuck in their tracks in the second quarter, scoring just two points and falling behind 20-15 at halftime as they struggled to finish shots and keep Robert, Moore and Philpotts from dominating the offensive boards.

A 3-pointer from Hedge and put-back by Ford tied the score early in the third quarter, setting up a nip-and-tuck affair over the next 11 minutes before Hamden seized the momentum late in the fourth.

“We did a good job of getting to the middle, but it wasn’t easy,” Kohs said. “They are big and physical and they’re long. The blocking out and defensive rebounding was terrible on our part. To be honest we haven’t worked on it in practice as much as we need to, but this gives us a focus going forward. The whole game came down to rebounding. Robert killed us on the glass. She mauled us.”

QUOTABLE

“I can’t say enough about the competition in the SCC in general. Every night we’re prepping for a big game, regardless of who the opponent is. This is why you play this type of basketball and this schedule. You want the competition, you want to play the best of the best. Even if you lose, you learn from it. It’s good for the state too. It’s good for the girls game and good for the kids. All around, it’s awesome.”

— Hamden coach Amanda Forcucci