Aedan Using (#33) scored a game-high 27 points in Tuesday night’s semifinal against Cromwell. Old Lyme won the game and now meet Morgan in Thursday’s final. File photo by C. Using.

OLD LYME — The Old Lyme boys avenged their overtime loss to Cromwell in last year’s Shoreline Conference final by soundly defeating Cromwell 54-34 Tuesday night to advance to Thursday’s Shoreline Championship final against Morgan. Tonight’s game tips off at 7:30 p.m. at Polson Middle School in Madison. The game against Cromwell was played in the Lyme-Old Lyme High School (LOLHS) gym.

After trailing by one point at the half, Old Lyme outscored Cromwell 29 to 8 in the second half.

Aiden Using led the Wildcat scoring with 27 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks. Ty Dean contributed nine points to the victory and Jared Ritchie eight.

Coach Kirk Kaczor told LymeLine, “The difference in the second half was our defense. Brady Sheffield and Ray Doll sat [on the bench] most of the second quarter with foul trouble.  When they came back in, that gave us a big lift.”

Kaczor continued enthusuastically, “We’re excited to go back to the finals.”

In the first round of the CIAC Class S Girl’s tournament, in a game played immediately prior to the boy’s game, eighth-seeded Old Lyme defeated Gilbert (seeded 25th) 46-32 to advance to a second round game against Aerospace to be played on Friday at 6:30 p.m. in the LOLHS gym.

Highlights from the game were Junior Sam Gray scoring 20 points, taking 10 rebounds and three steals, and making two blocks while Junior Emily DeRoehn scored seven points, took eight rebounds and five steals, and made two blocks. Senior Taylor Thompson added seven points with eight rebounds and one block.

Coach Don Bugbee commented after the game to LymeLine, “It was a solid team performance, especially defensively, and this was the difference in this game.” He added, “Tournament time is the time for minimal mistakes and you need contributions from everyone to advance from each round of games. Each possession is valuable and all of the little things you can do to contribute add up and put you in the best position to win a game.”

As always, we wish both teams the best of luck in their upcoming games and say with vigor, “Go Wildcats!”

The Wildcats will be looking to leading scorer Aedan Using (center) to leap high again for them against Westbrook this afternoon. Photo by C. Using.

Top seeded Old Lyme meet Westbrook (#8) in their quarter-final game of the boy’s Shoreline Conference at 3 p.m. this afternoon. The game will be played in the Lyme-Old Lyme High School gymnasium.

The other play-off games this afternoon are:
Cromwell (#5) at East Hampton (#4), 2 p.m.
Hale-Ray (#6) at Morgan (#3), 6 p.m.
Haddam-Killingworth (#7) at Valley Regional (#2), 4 p.m.

The semifinals will be played Tuesday at the higher seed’s home court.

The final is scheduled Thursday at Polson Middle School, Madison with a 7 p.m. tip-off.

Read a commentary on the Wildcats chances in the Conference at this link, Old Lyme Heavy Favorite To Win Shoreline Title.

GO WILDCATS!

OLD LYME — The Old Lyme boys won again Tuesday night defeating Hale Ray 71-55.  Perhaps more significantly in this extraordinary season they entered the GameTimeCT Top 10 teams in the 10th spot.

In an article published on GameTimeCT.com Monday, Feb. 17, Joe Morelli said, “Old Lyme makes its first appearance of the season in the top 10 after a pair of quality non-conference victories last week: at Amistad and in double overtime against Glastonbury at home.  The Wildcats have lost just one game, at Waterford in double overtime.”

Thus far, the Wildcats have lived up to their preseason billing as the favorite in the Shoreline Conference. Old Lyme reached …” Read the full article at the link above.

Aedan Using (#33) was Old Lyme’s top scorer in Saturday night’s non-conference game against Glastonbury. File photo.

LYME-OLD LYME — The Old Lyme boys’ basketball team held on to a hard-fought, double overtime 70-68 victory over Glastonbury in a non-Conference game played Saturday night on their home court.

Leading Old Lyme’s scoring was Aedan Using with 27 points, 17 rebounds, six assists, and four blocks.  Other top scorers for the Wildcats were Jared Ritchie with 14, Brady Sheffield with 12, and Ray Doll with 11.

Glastonbury hit a lay-up with 11 seconds left, which Old Lyme failed to answer, to equalize with the Wildcats and force the first overtime.  At the end of the first overtime, Glastonbury’s Dave Tosatti hit a three-pointer with seven seconds on the clock to force the second OT.

But in the second OT, Old Lyme’s Aedan Using found a cutting Jacob Ritchie, who made a basket with just 20 seconds remaining that turned out to be the game winner.

Old Lyme is currently 13-1 in the Shoreline Conference and 15-1 in the season.

In previous games:

Feb. 12

LYME/OLD LYME — The Old Lyme girls enjoyed back-to-back wins on the road, Feb. 1 and 3.

Last Saturday, Feb. 1, the girls defeated North Branford 47-21 in what coach Don Bugbee described as “probably the best team effort of the season.” Noting that the girls were “regrouping after two straight losses,” he commented, “Contributions from 10 players, especially on the defensive aspect of the game, made them a very difficult match-up for North Branford.”

Highlights of the game included Junior Emily DeRoehn scoring 12 points, while taking nine rebounds and three steals. Meanwhile, Sophmore Megan Loflin added 12 points with five rebounds and Junior Sam Gray scored eight points, with five rebounds and three steals.

This game took the Wildcats record to 8-5.

Additionally, the Junior Varsity (JV) girls won their game 49-25, bringing their record to 11-1. Freshman Hayley Cann had 16 points and Sophmore McLean Signora added 15.

On Monday, Old Lyme continued their winning streak beating Westbrook away 54-31.  Bugbee told LymeLine, “It was a very good team effort for the second straight game, which put us in control throughout the contest.” He added, “Contributions from 10 players, both defensively and offensively, were the key to this success.” Top scorer was junior Sam Gray, who scored 19 points and took eight rebounds.

The Wildcats are now 9-5.

The JV girls won their game 50-12, bringing their record to 12-1. Leading the team in scoring were freshman Hayley Cann with 11 points, sophomores Melanie Warren and Maddie Thompson with 10 and 9 points respectively, and freshman Alexis Fenton with nine.

Old Lyme, playing at home, meets Old Saybrook tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 6, and then faces Morgan at Clinton on Saturday, Feb. 8.

LYME-OLD LYME — Kirk Kaczor’s boys continued their extraordinarily successful run this season taking their record to 11-1 with yet another win last night, this time over East Hampton.

Old Lyme outlasted the Bellringers 65-51.  Leading the Wildcats were the duo of Aedan Using and Jared Ritchie, who scored 21 and 20 points respectively. Brady Sheffield chipped in with 11.  Using also had 17 rebounds and five blocks, while Ray Doll notched six assists.

Tye Lynch and Stephen Brady scored 16 and 14 points respectively for East Hampton.

LYME/OLD LYME — It was another great night for Old Lyme basketball.

The Old Lyme girls crushed St. Bernard 40-20 in an non-conference game yesterday evening in which Taylor Thompson scored 10 points and six rebounds while Sam Gray also notched 10 points as well as four steals. Emily DeRoehn contributed eight points with four rebounds  and three steals.

The game, played in Old Lyme, takes the Wildcats’ record to 7 -3.

Coach Don Bugbee commented after the game, “The girls played very well overall, with contributions from everyone. Our team defense was excellent and it made things very difficult for our opponent.”

The girls play Coginchaug Monday, Jan. 27, and East Hampton Thursday, Jan. 30. Both games are away.

Meanwhile, the Old Lyme boys defeated Hale Ray 92-63.  The Wildcats, playing away, were led by Aedan Using with 27 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists.  Also scoring for Old Lyme was Ray Doll with 17 points, Ty Dean with 11, and Jared Ritchie and Frank Sablone, who both scored 10 points.each with 10.

Hale-Ray was led by Sean Padario, who had six threes and 20 points.

The boys play two home games next week facing Coginchaug Tuesday and East Hampton Friday.

Aedan Using scored a remarkable 36 points againt North Branford Tuesday night. File photo.

LYME/OLD LYME  — Last night was a very good night for Old Lyme’s basketball teams.

Don Bugbee’s girls defeated the North Branford Thunderbirds at Old Lyme last night finishing with 53-47 victory. Meanwhile Kirk Kaczor’s boys traveled to North Branford and came away with a 70-51 win.

Highlights from the girl’s game included Junior Sam Gray’s 20 points and four rebounds while fellow Junior Emily DeRoehn scored 12 points and took five rebounds. Another Junior Ellis Zrenda took 12 rebounds.

Bugbee commented after the game, “This was a solid team effort given to defeat an aggressive and physical opponent. There was clear improvement in our play, which progressively developed each quarter throughout the game,” adding, “The difference in the game proved to be very good foul shooting by the whole team”.

Down at North Branford, Old Lyme defeated North Branford 70-51.  Aedan Using led the Wildcats with 36 points, 10 blocks and 14 rebounds.  Jared Ritchie added five blocks and four steals while Ray Doll scored 10 points.

Mike Sitro led the Thunderbirds with 26 points.

Next up for the girls is St. Bernard at Old Lyme on Thursday while the boys travel to Hale-Ray the same night.

The girls record is 6-3 while the boys stand at 8-1.