Pomperaug Puts Away New Milford After Dominating First Half

If you noticed the lights flickering last night it was just the Pomperaug boys' basketball team shooting the lights out as they bombarded New Milford by a convincing 82-45 margin.

The Panthers came out in the SWC season opener and had their foot to the pedal, utilizing a dominating inside game and an outside shot that staggered the Green Wave.

Pomperaug held a 25-11 rebounding advantage in the first half and headed to the locker room with a head shaking 52-15 advantage on the strength of seven three-pointers.

It was over just like that as the Panthers crashed the boards and blistered the nets running New Milford right out of the gym.

 "What do you say at halftime when you just played the perfect first half," said Pomperaug head coach Dave Yachtis. "We did that without one of our starting players Tim Harris."

"In the preseason it looked like it would take us a while to gel. We knew we had our top three scorers back but in the preseason we didn't show the cohesiveness that we had tonight."

Pomperaug came out clicking on all cylinders as Andre Makris (16 points, 12 rebounds) and Kevin Foy (6 points, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks) dominated the boards.

The speedy combination of Brent Pelella (24 points, 5 assists, 3 three pointers) and Jake Belden (11 points, 10 assists, 3 three pointers) on the perimeter buried the Green Wave under an avalanche of shots that found nothing but net.

Mike Foley came on and gave an all out effort that resulted in a six point, nine rebound productive contribution as the Panthers put it away early on.

It was a 9-6 Pomperaug lead when the Panthers exploded with a 12-0 run to take over the game. Foy took a pass from Makris down on the baseline and put it in off the window. Pelella hauled down a rebound and took it coast-to-coast before converting the ensuing free throw.

Foley and Makris added put backs and when Belden stepped back behind the arc and drilled a three it was a 21-6 lead at the 2:46 mark of the first period. The Panthers held a 14-8 advantage on the boards in the opening period.

Knowing they needed to make a change, the Green Wave came out and gathered the first three rebounds of the second period, but it would be their last as Pomperaug went on to control the boards by a convincing margin of 11-3.

That only fueled the fire to a 29-7 second period where the Panthers hit on five three pointers to put the game away at 52-15 at the break.

 "We came out looking to push the ball and it was impressive the way the team responded," said Yachtis. One year makes a huge difference in high school. They get bigger, stronger more mature and they make better decisions. We had a good week of practice coming into this game so I'm looking for us to build on a game like this and carry it with us throughout the season."

If New Milford had any hope of making this a game they needed to slow down the frenzied pace that the Panthers created. Coach Yachtis went to his bench to try and gain a little experience for such a young group looking to back up this first unit.

The Green Wave outscored the Panthers 17-13 in the third period with Angel Vasques (19 points) leading the way.

Henry Archie, Mike Burke, Nate Rubinstein and Lucien Fortier came in off the bench to show the depth of the Panthers. The group went on to outscore New Milford down the stretch by a 17-13 margin for the final score of 82-45,

Pomperaug will be back in action on December 28-29 at the Stratford Holiday Tournament.