GRANBY — Coach Tim Sheehan stood on the Granby sideline and stared at the ground, rubbing his temple with his right hand.
It was late in the second quarter and Renaissance had just stolen the ball and scored in transition for a second consecutive time.
The Phoenix used a full-court press that swarmed the Rams and forced consecutive turnovers in the first half on Tuesday night.
Granby staged a comeback in the second half, but got loose with the ball in the last few minutes of the game and fell to Renaissance, 64-51.
Nate Breault scored 22 points and made six 3-pointers for the Rams (3-2, 1-1 Bi-County West). Renaissance’s Eric Tynes scored a game-high 27 points.
“I think the first half is where we lost the game,” Sheehan said. “Even though we came back, it took a lot out of us.”
Breault shot 3-for-3 from beyond the arc in the first quarter to help keep the Rams on pace with Renaissance. His early success shooting gave Granby a cushion, but solid defense from the Phoenix (6-1, 1-1 Bi-County West) started to give the Rams issues.
Granby started to telegraph passes and turn the ball over at the start of the second quarter. Renaissance took advantage by getting out in transition and scoring on the other end.
Tynes made a 3-pointer and Abdul Hassan made a layup to open the second quarter and put the Phoenix ahead, 22-13.
Midway through the quarter, the Rams started to double Renaissance’s guards near the top of the key. The strategy worked and forced the Phoenix into poor passes that gave Granby easy baskets on the other end.
Trailing 24-19 at the start of the third, Granby’s game plan on offense shifted. Instead of attacking the perimeter and trying to get outside shots, the team found ways to pull Renaissance’s center out of the paint and dropped the ball off to Carter White in the inside for open layups.
White scored 14 of his 16 points in the third quarter.
“We were trying to get the ball inside,” Sheehan said. “Just putting someone on the backside of the press to pull someone away.”
Breault hit back-to-back 3-pointers with around two minutes to go in the third quarter to close the gap to 38-37.
Granby continued to find ways to get the ball inside and started to shoot effectively from the perimeter, but the Rams had issues containing Tynes, who stopped any potential Granby runs with baskets of his own.
The Rams trailed 55-49 with 3:35 to go after a made 3-pointer from Tynes, but that was the closest Granby would get to closing the gap for the rest of the game.
“I think at that point everyone put pressure on themselves instead of playing,” Sheehan said. “That is what we did in the third quarter. We just played. No one looked at the score, we just played. We knew we were down, so it was about being active and aggressive. We lost our aggressiveness in the fourth quarter a bit too much.”
The Rams boast a starting lineup of three sophomores, one freshman and one senior.
“At times (Renaissance) started pressuring us a little bit and our age showed,” Sheehan said. “If we could bottle up that third quarter, it would be great to have.”
The Rams had stretches when they looked cohesive on offense and they had moments when they didn’t look like they were on the same page.
Overall, Sheehan is happy with how the team has fought through their first five games but being more consistent is one of the program’s top priorities.
“We have to put 32 minutes together,” Sheehan said. “If we can do that, we are a pretty solid basketball team.”