OLD LYME — Playing at home on Monday night, the Old Lyme boys ended up defeating Hale Ray 68 – 60, but it was a close call.
Old Lyme struck early and hard with some good post offense from the Monte twins — Calvin and Caden — to open up a first quarter 24-15 lead. Calvin ended the game with 19 points,15 rebounds, three assists along with a steal and block apiece, Meanwhile, Caden notched 17 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and an assist.
Hale Ray, however, refused to go quietly spurred on by some outstanding shot-making by their leader Mamush Ciccerello, who scored a game-high 27 points.
Old Lyme was simply not able to pull away from Hale-Ray and in the fourth quarter, Hale Ray moved to within three. points of the Wildcats.
Ultimately though, thanks to a few timely press-breaks, Old Lyme was able to survive and come away with their first victory of the season.
After the game, Old Lyme coach Ken Beeman commented, ‘’I mentioned to the guys that in my book this is no such thing as a bad win. A win is a win. They are not always pretty but they all count. And thankfully it did not turn into a bad loss.’
Old Lyme’s next game is Thursday against Westbrook.
The ‘Cats record stands at 1-1, after their season-opening 7-45 loss to Portland. After that game, Beeman predicted, “Portland is an experienced, aggressive, confident group that is going to win a lot of shoreline games this season.”