On Tuesday, January 28th, the Old Saybrook boys basketball team faced the very talented Coginchaug Blue Devils team. The game, held at Coginchaug Regional High School in Durham, saw the Blue Devils defend their home court with a big win and score of 29-59. Despite a close game to start, the Rams struggled to maintain that against a well-rounded Coginchaug team. The Coginchaug Blue Devils showcased their skills making it difficult for Old Saybrook to complete the comeback. Although the boys showed solid defense and effort, the Coginchaug offense was too strong, leading to the big win. Coginchaug remains at the top of the Shoreline bracket, while Old Saybrook continues to fight for a spot in the Shoreline and State playoffs as they faced Westbrook just a few days later. On January 31st, the Rams took a short bus ride to face the Westbrook Knights. After beating them 62-32 at the start of the season, Westbrook was looking to take revenge. They kept the game close as Saybrook had the lead 26-19 at halftime. However the game fell out of the Knights’ hands as Old Saybrook held them to 4 points in the second half, giving them a 53-23 victory. That gave the boys their 5th win of the season and are looking to win 3 out of their next 4 in order to qualify for playoffs.
Meanwhile, the girls basketball team also played Coginchaug, at the time in first place in the shoreline, at home on January 28th. The Lady Rams were looking to defend their home court and knock off the number one seeded team. Old Saybrook girls kept it very close but unfortunately fell by three points with a final score of 58-61. The Rams played hard defense and displayed effort throughout the game, as they were never taken out of the game and kept pushing to take the lead but the Blue Devils pulled away in the final minutes of the game. The hard-luck Rams were looking to bounce back the next day as they hosted Griswold. Griswold is an out of conference team who obtained a record of 9-7. An evenly looked match up set a competitive game. The game would go back and forth but ultimately Griswold would pull away in the final minute with the final score of 47-54. The Rams were hit with back-to-back close losses but looked to win on Friday against Westbrook. Once again, the Rams played at home but this time they did not disappoint. The Rams were in complete control all game, but the Westbrook Knights would not go away. After the Knights kept it close all game, the Rams pulled away towards the end with a final score of 49-32. The big milestone of the game was Breleigh Cooke scoring her 1,000th career point at Old Saybrook High School. The Friday night victories against Westbrook meant a strong start to the weekend for both teams.