East Granby rallies to beat Canton in overtime and move to semifinals

East Granby’s Chloe Rapose (10) and Maya Betts (33) close in on Canton’s Emery Howard (11) in Friday night’s Class S quarterfinal. The Crusaders beat Canton in OT. More game photos

EAST GRANBY, March 7, 2025 – It’s not often that an East Granby team gets to the final four of a CIAC tournament.

On Friday night, the Crusaders erased a 10-point third quarter deficit and saw Maya Betts sink four three-point shots in the fourth quarter and overtime as the East Granby girls basketball team advanced to the Class S semifinals with a 46-37 win in overtime over conference rival Canton.

No. 11 East Granby (16-9) will be making their first semifinal appearance since 2003 and their third semifinal appearance since 1996. The Crusaders will face NCCC champion Coventry (22-3) in Tuesday’s semifinal game.

East Granby held No. 14 Canton (13-11) to just three points in the third quarter and one point in overtime.

“Our energy is a big thing,” said Betts, who scored 12 of her game-high 15 points in the final 12 minutes of the contest. “We’re a team that thrives off our energy. Stay focused and locked in on the moment.

“We’re a team that picks each other up,” she said. “We trust each other. We’re really big on trust.”

Canton had a 31-26 lead with 5:39 remaining in the game but scored just one field goal in the remainder of the game. A young Warrior squad, that started a freshman, three sophomores and a junior, had a few too many turnovers and too few rebounds in the final nine minutes of the contest.

“We had everything out in front of us,” Canton coach Brian Medeiros said. “We controlled our own destiny. But unfortunately, we didn’t make the plays we needed to (make), unlike what we did (Wednesday) against (No. 3) Coginchaug.”

Sophomore Ruby Theberge had a team-high 14 points with freshman Riley Ahlgren and junior Emery Howard scoring eight points each. Ahlgren hit a big three-point shot with 22 seconds left in regulation that tied the game, 36-36, and forced overtime.

“They played with great passion. They played with great energy,” Medeiros said of his team. “But sometimes, passion and energy aren’t enough. You have to pay attention to details. You have to do a better job of executing. I think in an environment like this, the moment got a little too big and we tightened up when things got hard.”

“That second half got away from us,” he said. “It was like a slow, methodical burn.”

East Granby’s Tamia Hewett, right, plays tight defense on Canton’s Brook Czerwinski in front of Crusader coach Doug Knowe in Friday night’s Class S quarterfinal game in East Granby. More game photos

The Warriors led by 10, 23-13, after hitting a free throw with 6:10 left in the third quarter.

But they were only able to add another two free throws from Theberge in the quarter. Meanwhile, the Crusaders received a three-point shot from Karina Baranl, a basket in the lane from Chloe Rapose and a baseline basket from Ava Walsh to cut the lead to four after three quarters, 25-21.

Betts ignited the large, vocal East Granby crowd with a three-point shot to cut the lead to one early in the fourth quarter.

Then, it looked as if the Warriors would stabilize themselves, scoring three of the next four field goals in the game. All three came after a series of passes around the perimeter to find the open player near the basket.

Howard had two field goals while O’Connor had one. A basket from Howard with 5:39 remaining off a nice assist from Helen Canny gave Canton a five-point lead, 31-26.

But East Granby rallied quickly. Betts hit another three-pointer from the corner and Rapose scored in the lane following a Canton turnover to tie the game at 31-31 with 4:30 remaining.

The Crusaders took a 33-31 lead but Canton tied it on a one-handed shot in the lane from Ahlgren with 2:18 remaining. Betts hit a three-point shot from the corner with 1:10 left to put the Crusaders up three, 36-33.

East Granby missed a pair of free throws with 30 seconds left that could have put the game away and Ahlgren came down and hit a game-tying three-pointer with 22 seconds left for the Warriors. Canny did a nice job keeping the ball in bounds after a high pass and kicked it back out to Ahlgren.

In overtime, East Granby’s Tamia Hewitt drove between two defenders to give the Cruaders a 38-36 lead. Theberge hit a free throw for Canton before Betts drained another three-point shot with 3:04 left to extend East Granby’s lead to 41-37. Rapose drove to the basket and laid the ball off glass and into the hoop with 1:32 remaining for a 43-37 lead.

Betts led East Granby with 15 points with Hewitt adding 13. Rapose scored 10 for the Crusaders.

“We tried to make an adjustment (in the second half) on how we were bringing up the ball upcourt,” East Granby’s first-year head coach Doug Knowe said. “I thought we were rushing it a bit. We tried to slow it down. We wanted to make sure we took care of it.

“One of the things we were trying to do was open up (shots) on the corners and Maya stepped up and hit some big ones. When she gets comfortable, she gets hot.”

About a month ago, the Warriors beat East Granby, 41-35.

“This is a great moment,” Knowe said. “It’s a redemption (win). The kids are living up to it and town turned out tonight.”

Now, the Crusaders are one win away from the Class S championship at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

East Granby 46, Canton 37, OT
At East Granby
Canton (37) Ruby Theberge 3-8-14, Brook Czerwinski 0-0-0, MacKenzie Yanke 0-0-0, Riley Ahlgren 3-1-8, Emery Howard 2-3-8, Lucy O’Connor 3-0-6, Helen Canny 0-1-1. Totals 12 14-19 37
East Granby (46) MacKenzie Dubois 0-0-0, Chloe Rapose 4-2-10, Kiley Rudzik 0-0-0, Ava Walsh 1-1-3, Tamia Hewitt 6-1-13, Karina Baran 1-2-5, Maya Betts 5-1-15. Totals 17 7-14 46
Canton (13-11)             12  10  3  11    1  — 37
East Granby (16-9)       7     6  8  15  10  — 46
Three-point goals: Betts (EG) 4,Baran (EG), Ahlgren (C)

More game photos