The Hall High School boys basketball team defeated Waterbury Career Academy 70-62 Tuesday night in West Hartford.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

Playing on back-to-back nights and without two senior starters, the Hall Titans started slowly, built a big lead, and then saw it nearly fall apart in a wild 8-point win over Waterbury Career Academy on Tuesday night in West Hartford.

On Monday, Hall lost its first game of the season – against Springfield (MA) Central – and Tuesday they were without captains Aiden Delaney and Eli Kramer who were both out with injuries.

“Aiden is an All-State caliber player,” said Hall head coach Bryan Moretti. Delaney has gone for 30 or more points in two of the games he has played in this season. Moretti expects him to be out for a period of time, but believes Kramer will be back soon.

Until then, it is up to everyone else on the roster to pick up the slack if the team (3-1) is going to keep going. “Some of these guys have not  played any varsity minutes until this season,” Moretti said of his team.

Tuesday it was WCA going out to an early six-point lead as Hall had trouble controlling the ball and hitting their shots. Dalin Fotache tied things up at 8 about five minutes in, and then teammate Lincoln Bush hit a pair of 3s to make it a 14-10 lead with 20 seconds to go. Before the buzzer would sound Nico Gilbert – who led Hall with 21 points – drained one of his five 3s in the game and the lead was 7 after one.

“Nico was on the JV team last year and this is his first varsity experience,” said Moretti. Another player getting his first taste of varsity basketball for Hall is Isaiah Gaston, who scored 14 points and was a huge factor for the team on the boards.

Hall continued to build its lead in the second quarter, going up 12 on a Zach Debin 3-pointer two minutes in. The Spartans cut it to 7 when Alex Turner – who had 21-points in the game – hit his 3. With 1:00 to go, Gaston grabbed back-to-back rebounds on missed Hall shots, finding Gilbert open for a 3 after the second one. Gilbert would hit another buzzer beater 3 to end the half and give his team the 33-22 lead.

The host team worked on increasing the lead, and saw it go to 12 after Gaston hit his second 3-pointer of the quarter just three minutes in. WCA refused to quit and cut it to 8 before Gaston hit, followed by Tim O’Brien, and Gilbert drained from distance to make it 53-37 and Gaston hit a lay-in and it was 55-37 with just under one minute to play.

But something changed in the fourth quarter when WCA’s press started giving Hall fits as they tried to inbound the ball and get it across midcourt. The Spartans went on an 11-1 run in the opening 2:30, and it would be another 20 seconds before Hall would score its first basket of the quarter.

“It is a learning curve (for the players),” said Moretti. “It is part of the process.”

The quarter dissolved into Hall getting a lead, and WCA pushing back. When the lead got to 8, it was Alex Turner hitting a 3 for his club to slice it to 5. Turner led Waterbury with 21 points in the game and hit several key baskets down the stretch. The lead stood at 2 with 3:36, before Gaston and Gilbert hooked up again for a big play that turned it into a five-point game.

Hall struggled to inbound the ball over the last few minutes of the game as they could not figure out how to beat the WCA pressure. It forced them into turnovers and then fouls. Fortunately for the Titans, the Spartans went cold at the charity stripe ultimately missing six free throws over the last 90 seconds of the game.

Bush hit for two for Hall to make it 66-61, and Axel Colon missed two from the line for Waterbury with :28 to go. Gilbert made both of his free throws with :21 to play, then it was Fotache, who had just come into the game to replace Gaston when he fouled out, who stepped to the line and calmly sank two free throws with 4.9 seconds to go to end things at 70-62.

“It is hard to adjust when you lose two guys and don’t really have any practice time to prepare to put guys into specific spots,” Moretti said after the game.

The New Year’s break will give his injured players some time to heal, and the Titans some time to work on not having them in the lineup. Hall is back on the court on Jan. 2 against Avon, and then three nights later will face South Windsor.

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