Westport Basketball 5th PAL White Team Opens Season

The Westport PAL White Team won its season opener this weekend despite a furious second half comeback by a New Canaan team that saw shrunk a nine-point deficit to one point.

The Red 5’s ultimately fell to the Westport PAL White team 39-27 in their first game of the season on Saturday afternoon in Westport.

New Canaan was led by point guard Connor O’Donnell who had a team-high 8 points. O’Donnell also dished out 5 assists, had 3 steals and pulled down 6 rebounds in a losing effort. The front court tandem of Matt Salmini and Travis Sturcke each scored 4 points and combined for 9 rebounds.

Ryan Connelly (3 points, 3 assists) and Cooper Dinan (2 points, 3 rebounds, 1 steal) helped spark New Canaan’s comeback in the third quarter as the Red 5’s went on an 8-0 run to cut a 23-14 Westport lead to 23-22. Big baskets from Chris McLallen (2 points), Will Larson (2 points) and solid defense from Bear Morris (3 rebounds) and Ryan Tonghini (2 rebounds, 1 assist) kept New Canaan within striking distance.

Westport would pull away however, outscoring New Canaan 14-5 in the fourth quarter to earn the win, despite excellent play on both offense and defense from O’Donnell and Colin Tiscornia (2 points).

Contributed photo courtesy of New Canaan Basketball Association.