Ladies first

A couple of college hoop standouts with Berkshire County roots are rewriting the record books at Colby-Sawyer College.

I couldn’t find Colby-Sawyer on a map, nevermind with a GPS ( it is in New London, N.H.), but Women’s Basketball Head Coach George Martin is surely pleased Taylor DeSanty and Cailin Bullett located the campus four years ago.

DeSanty, the all-time leading scorer at Drury High School in North Adams, recently became the top career scorer at her college as well. The 5’8″ senior provides value to her team in other ways than just putting points on the board.

A true leader and all-around durable player, the points just seem to add up in spite of her unselfish play. She has averaged over 15 points per game over her four seasons and has a high watermark for points in a game, at 38. She also is tops all-time in three-point baskets.

Dwight Howard take notice

As a junior, she led all D-3 schools in the nation shooting 89.9 percent (89/99) from the foul line and has an 88-percent career mark (184/209). Play off her and she will score; foul her, she will score more.

Taylor is the daughter of Steve and Lynn DeSanty of North Adams and the cousin of former Colby standout and current Williams College Women’s Golf Coach Erika DeSanty.

Many of DeSanty’s points have come at the hand of fellow senior 5′ 7″ Cailin Bullett. Recently Bullett set the school’s all-time assist mark (she passed Erika DeSanty), and she still finds time to score over 10 points per contest and has totaled 28 twice in her career.

Cailin Bullett hails from Millbury, Mass., but county fans know of her Berkshire connection. Her dad, Tom, displayed his outstanding talent on the court at Drury and once torched High School of Commerce for 40-plus points in the Springfield Civic Center.

Her grandfather, Bernard “Bucky” Bullett, was a legendary sports broadcaster for WMNB, and her uncles, Rick, Dennis and Kevin, played their hoops for St. Joe and Drury during the 1960s and ’70s.

Tom went on to play at Worcester State College where he tallied more points (1,560) during his career than any Berkshire County hoopster ever did at the college level.

At Millbury High School, Cailin was a four-time Southern League all star and a member of three league and district championship squads. She holds records at Millbury in points and assists. (Bullett family stats were not available at press time but it appears Cailin set the career assist mark for Bulletts in her third game.)

After arriving on the New London campus, it didn’t take her long to get acclimated to college hoops as she scored 19 points in her first game. The rest is history with still more to be recorded.

She is ranked in the top 10 in Colby-Sawyer history in points, three-pointers, free throws made and assists (no. 1). When she wasn’t passing the ball to her teammates, she managed to put her name on the 1,000-point scorer list this year.

Before beginning law school in the fall, Cailin will play with a United States team that will tour Italy this summer.

Cailin’s parents, Tom and Mary Jo, still reside in Millbury.

Coach Martin was asked if he aggressively recruited the pair in their scholastic days or did they just appear on campus.

“We knew of Taylor since her AAU career when she was a sophomore, and I can certainly give you directions to the Bucky Bullett Gym at Drury,” he said. “I was there when Taylor got her 1,000th high school point, when she broke the girls scoring record and when she established the all-time Drury mark.”

If he spent this much time in North Adams along with coaching his own team at Colby-Sawyer, I would guess he misses quite a few meals at home. He has also found time to win over 70 percent of his games, along with many titles and awards. His teams have gone to the postseason 19 years in a row and to the ECAC tournament seven times.

Coach Martin, a Springfield College grad and native of Athol, also closely followed the early career of Cailin Bullett.

“When Cailin played against Drury in the gym named after her grandfather, I could see that those girls would be a great tandem if they ever played on the same team,” he said. “I told both that with Cailin at the point and Taylor as the two guard, this would be the perfect fit for both.”

It appears he was correct.

Tom Bullett recalls the “homecoming” game when Millbury invaded the “Bullett” gym: “It was Drury Coach John Franzoni’s idea, the place was packed with family and friends with festivities after the game. I wish my dad could have been there to broadcast the game, but I guarantee he was watching.”

Millbury won, and Taylor and Cailin both played well.

In recruiting this senior tandem it didn’t hurt Martin had coached Erika DeSanty during her record-setting four years at C-S.

“I almost lost her to a golf scholarship opportunity but we are sure happy that Erika decided to come here for basketball,” Martin said. “She is doing great at Williams, and the last time I played golf with her, she was fantastic, a very talented and dedicated young lady.”

Erika jokingly feels she deserves much of the credit for Coach Martin’s success at Colby-Sawyer.

“Don’t tell Coach Martin, who is a great guy and aggressive recruiter, that I said this, but I feel that I was a major influence in getting Cailin and Taylor to attend C-S,” she said. “Those two girls could have played anywhere and been successful, but they have no regrets for playing for such a fine program.”

Senior Day, on Feb. 2, was another “take no prisoners” day for the Lady Chargers, as they beat up on Thomas College 91-53. Bullett had 31, including a record 13 foul shots, and DeSanty had a solid game, tossing in 11. They ran their record to 17-4 , 14-0 in conference.

DeSanty went by previous career scoring leader Beth Chartier (1,514) earlier in the season and is well over 1,600 points at present.

There are three regular season games remaining. I’m sure Bullett and DeSanty will be adding to their career stats and setting the bar high for future players. Coach Martin better get on the recruiting trail again.

Posted by Dick Syriac on February 6, 2013. Filed under Berkshire Sports Guy,Columns,Opinion,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry