Another close call for ‘Hounds

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Naugatuck's Michael Plasky goes up for a shot Feb. 19 in front of Watertown's Nick Mondak and Mike Vailonis at Watertown High. Watertown won the game, 49-46. -REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
Naugatuck’s Michael Plasky goes up for a shot Feb. 19 in front of Watertown’s Nick Mondak and Mike Vailonis at Watertown High. Watertown won the game, 49-46. -REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

NAUGATUCK — The Greyhounds game last Friday night depicted a season of near misses.

Naugatuck came up on the short end of a 49-46 final margin to Watertown.

“That has been the story of our season,” said Naugatuck head coach Mike Wilson, whose team fell to 4-15 following the loss. “We lost on a shot at the buzzer to Torrington and never really recovered from that one.”

The 80-78 loss at home to Torrington at the buzzer two weeks ago may have taken the steam out of the Greyhounds as losses to Woodland, Wolcott and Bassick followed.

In the 85-46 loss to Bassick Feb. 17, Fejiro Onakpoma led the Greyhounds with 23 points but was the only player in double figures.

“The kids have worked so hard and battled in every game we’ve played,” Wilson said. “But playing a large group of young players is a process and they need to learn how to finish games.”

Against Watertown (11-8) the Greyhounds were well within reach, down 19-17 at the half. The Indians put 19 points on the board in the third as Naugy only countered with 15 of its own and trailed 38-32 going into the final quarter.

Naugatuck closed the gap by outscoring Watertown 14-11 in the final quarter, but it was too little too late as the Indians held off the Greyhounds once again.

“All season long we have been in a ton of games,” Wilson said. “It all comes down to learning how to finish games. We lost twice to a very good Watertown team, once by five points and once by three points. So the effort is there and we have shown we can compete but we just haven’t been able to finish these games.”

The scoring was spread around versus Watertown. Onakpoma led the way with 10 points, followed by Steve Marinaro with nine points and Antoine Sistrunk with eight points. Corey Plasky chipped in with six points and James Mesidor added five points. Mike Plasky and Shane Swierbitowicz contributed four points each.

The Greyhounds are scheduled to close out the regular season Thursday at home versus Woodland.