Fair Haven girls slip past Springfield, 39-33

Springfield and Fair Haven are in the midst of similar seasons.

Published January 30, 2015 in the Rutland Herald Fair Haven girls slip past Springfield, 39-33 By POODY WALSH Correspondent SPRINGFIELD — Springfield and Fair Haven are in the midst of similar seasons. Both clubs have had their shining moments, but moments that were not so shining. The Slaters of late have hit the skids a bit entering Thursday night’s game at Springfield, losers of four of its last five to go 7-6 and dropping to seventh place in the Division II standings. Springfield, on the other hand, had its struggles early in the season, but had won five of its last six to go 9-6 and move ahead of the Slaters into sixth place. They will probably change places in the standings now as the Slaters, while not lighting up the scoreboard, grabbed some rebounds, played some defense and came away with a 39-33 win at Dressel Gym. When anybody plays Springfield the plan is always the same, pay attention to Chelsea McAllister. Fair Haven coach Kyle Wilson thought that Lexi Quenneville, who drew the defensive assignment, did well. “And we did a good picking her up once she got free,” said Wilson. McAllister ended up with 19 points, but they were hard-earned points, and she had to be careful as she picked up her third foul before the half ended. Unfortunately for Springfield, McAllister was the only Cosmo in double figures as no other team member had more than four points. So what did Springfield coach Joe Brown think of his team’s performance? “The defense was sloppy, the passing was sloppy and the effort was sloppy,” said Brown. So coach what did you really think? “There was a lack of discipline and they have to care,” he said. What bothered Brown the most was that his club jumped out to a 5-0 lead and played very well to lead 10-8 after one period than followed that with a one-point second period. The Cosmos went from 2:05 of the first period to 7:32 of the third period without scoring a field goal. “I don’t know, we just forgot to play like we did at the beginning,” said Brown. Still the Slaters were not exactly burning the nets and had a terrible time putting the Cosmos away as the Slater lead was just 34-28 with 6:10 to go. “Springfield did a good job in a lot of later game possessions,” said Wilson. “I know they had me worried.” Wilson was worried enough that when the lead got to 38-31 with 1:52 to go he called a timeout and sent his team into a delay game and was able to run out the clock. One of the reasons the Slaters were able to keep the Springfield offensive production down was the size advantage that the likes of Lindsey Marcy and Jenna Alexander provided as they did as instructed and put their arms up and took away the passing and shooting for the Cosmos. Fair Haven, which hosts Hartford on Monday, got eight point games from Halle Colouttie and Marcy. Alexander had seven. Springfield hosts Mill River on Saturday.