The Jonathan Law girls basketball team improved to 2-0 at home and 3-0 overall after an impressive second half against the visiting East Haven Yellow Jackets in the James Richetelli Sr. Gymnasium on Dec. 19.
Law rallied from a 12-point deficit in the second quarter to dominate the second half en route to a 53-44 victory.
Jessica Centore led all scorers with 16 points, followed by Laura Dulin with 15 and Erin Saley with 10 for Jonathan Law.
Cailey Korwek and Jessica Benevento led East Haven with 11 points each.
The first quarter was rife with turnovers and steals, before Dulin opened the scoring with a layup following a nice give-and-go pass from Saley.
East Haven went on to score seven unanswered, capped off by a 3-pointer from Toni Carlson.
Both teams tried to press early, which East Haven executed well, grabbing most of the loose balls allowing them to get out in transition and grab the lead.
Korwek finished off a three-point play from the free-throw line to give the Yellow Jackets a 14-8 lead to end the first quarter.
“East Haven puts a lot of pressure on, they came at us really hard right away,” Law head coach Dan Young said. “That knocked us a little bit and we had some turnovers.”
The teams traded buckets to open the second quarter, after which East Haven’s pressure really caused Law problems.
Three turnovers in four possessions for Law allowed East Haven to go on an 8-2 run finished by another Carlson 3-pointer, before Law’s Kailee Frank hit a baseline jumper to bring Law within 22-12.
The turnovers caused the Eagles to commit sloppy fouls, putting East Haven in the bonus with 6:37 left to go in the half.
Law started to move the ball well and create open looks, but they couldn’t knock down many shots.
East Haven had very long possessions, passing the ball around the three-point line more what seemed like minutes on end.
Law battled back, going on 9-2 run of its own completed by a steal fast break lay up by Centore to pull within 24-19 heading into the half.
Korwek opened the third quarter with another 3-pointer for East Haven, but after that it was all Jonathan Law.
Dulin started the scoring with a layup, Centore drilled back-to-back midrange jump shots, Saley had a nice putback after an offensive rebound, followed by a three from Dulin.
Centore ended the barrage with another jumper from the top of the key to cap a 12-0 run by Eagles, with the third quarter ending with Law up 39-34.
“We got a few stops, got the momentum back, getting the game back to a running game was big for us,” said Young.
“We thought we could score on them if we got things right on defense.”
Dulin, Centore, and Saley all knocked down jump shots to push Law’s lead to nine in the fourth quarter and the game slowly got out of reach for East Haven.