By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
With the weather coming into play, the CIAC boys' basketball state championship Saturday was split into a two-day, two-site marathon.
The Class LL and L games were played Saturday night at UConn's Gampel Pavilion but the Class M and S contests were Sunday (after press time) at Central Connecticut State University.
In the games played Saturday, Hillhouse-New Haven held on to it's Class LL title with a repeat win over East Catholic-Manchester and Weaver-Hartford upset previously-perfect Maloney-Meriden to win the Class L championship.
Class LL
In the end, the result was the same but the method for getting there was decidedly different.
Hillhouse retained its CIAC Class LL (nee, Division I) state boys' basketball championship Saturday night with a 55-39 win over East Catholic. Last year, the Academics beat the Eagles, 81-43.
This time, it was only 19-15 at the half. Last year, the game was essentially over in the first quarter when Hillhouse took a 29-11 lead. It was 47-19 at the half.
This time, it was a third-period defensive shutdown which lifted the Acs. They held East to a single three-point field goal (by Mike Auriemma, son of UConn women's coach Geno) and one free throw. Meanwhile, the defense led to some fast-break offense and the Acs turned 19-15 into 36-19 and salted away their state record 21st overall championship.
"Last year's team was different," said Hillhouse coach Kermit Carolina. "Many nights we were ahead by 10 when we walked into the gym. That was a very gifted offensive team."
This year's team had less offense.
"Michael Moore and Kwamaine McCarter stepped up big this year on offense, but it was pretty much two people," said Carolina. "Defensively, we had the same concept as last year: tight man-to-man, in-your-face. This year, we've also shown we can be patient defensively. We don't have to live with the press. We can play solid, fundamental defense."
That was evidenced by 12 steals and 18 East Catholic turnovers which led to 19 Hillhouse points. It could also be seen in the way the Academics clogged passing lanes and limited East's ability to run its back-door cuts and duck-down plays. What appeared to be open was often thwarted by a quickly-reacting defender getting a hand on an inside bounce pass.
In addition, the Acs stopped Auriemma almost cold. His three-pointer in the third period was his only basket before garbage time and he said it was his only good look at the hoop.
"He's a tremendous shooter and we didn't want to give him looks," said Carolina, who ran a team of defenders including Chris Murell, Chaz Stewart and, at times, McCarter, at Auriemma.
"They did a good job containing him and the rest of the guys to win the game," said East coach Luke Reilly, who for some reason known only to himself had his team pressing and fouling in the final minute after Carolina had substituted liberally (in fact, Hillhouse drew a technical foul for playing someone whose name was not in the scorebook).
The game was played at East Catholic's slower pace for much of the first half. That enabled 6-9 junior Nick Greenbacker, who was probably the most improved player on the court from a year ago, to have eight points, five rebounds and four blocks by intermission.
But to open the third period, Tywan Samuels hit an acrobatic lay-up, Moore drove for a hoop off a turnover and McCarter scored inside before Moore's steal and length-of-the-court jaunt through most of the East defense made it 27-15.
"They scored some baskets right away and we didn't stop the bleeding," Reilly said. "Once they get ahead and start spreading the floor, they are a tough team to chase."
That was another difference from last year. Carolina pulled his troops out and, after one three-point attempt, yelled at his players and ran his finger across his throat as if to say "cut that out." Hillhouse spent much of the final period being patient and going to the foul line.
Moore, a unanimous MVP choice, had 21 points, six rebounds and five steals. He was credited with two assists but seemed to have quite a few more. His final two free throws with 1:11 left to play, also left him with 1000 career points.
"This was more significant to me that last year," he said. "Because I was so much more a part of it. This year I had more of an impact on what we had to do all year."
Last year, he was the only underclassman in the starting line-up.
McCarter, who had 11 points and a team-high nine rebounds, was the only other Hillhouse player in double figures, but the Acs also got 16 points off their bench (East had no bench points).
While Moore, Murell and McCarter will graduate along with some subs. Hillhouse will still be a contender next year with a strong contingent including starters Terrence McKiver (a 6-5 junior) and Jeremy Moore (a 5-8 sophomore) back plus 6-6 sophomore Hassan Toler, who gave his team some excellent minutes off the bench.
Greenbacker finished with a double-double (10 points, 12 rebounds) while Auriemma closed his high school career with 10 points. East also graduates starters Mike Rhodes, Davod Addy and Pat Kearns but has good size coming back in Greenbacker, 6-5 Tom DeSautels and 6-4 Jim DeSautels.
Hillhouse finished 27-1 and East was 24-3.
Class L
Maloney's dream season turned to a nightmare named Tyrone Gardner as Weaver used a 28-19 third period advantage to top the Spartans, 80-73, for the Class L title.
Gardner, a 6-0 sophomore point guard (he is reportedly a junior in terms of remaining eligibility) made six-of-ten three-pointers, hit all eight of his free throws and scored 36 points, 17 of them in that decisive period.
"I thought I had a good game but not a great game," said Gardner, whose teammates pointed to him as the `real coach' of the team. "I'm not worried about how many points I score."
"He was just making them from everywhere," said Maloney coach Howie Hewitt, who was absolutely classy in defeat. "They are a good team but when someone is shooting like that.
"We had guys right on him and he was shooting over them, around them. The kid is a good passer, too," added Hewitt, who agreed a comparison with East Hartford's Doug Wiggins (now a UConn freshman) was at least somewhat in order. "With Wiggins, we had to worry about his driving to the basket also, but this kid did penetrate some. I don't think he's ready to play Division I college basketball right now."
Early in the game, Maloney's pressing defense appeared to give the Beavers trouble. Weaver had eight turnovers in the first quarter and 13 at the half. Still, said Gardner, "I knew we could run with them," and in the end, Weaver finished with 25 points off turnovers to Maloney's 16.
"I thought in the first half we could have done more with turnovers," said Hewitt. "We missed a lot of opportunities to score. We would steal the ball and then not cash in."
"We knew they wanted to put us away in the first half," said Weaver coach Lou LaPenna. "They have been doing that to teams all year. We've played games all year where we've had to come from behind and we did that tonight, too."
The game was played in spurts. Maloney, behind 6-6 Jeron Belin, jumped to an early 12-3 lead, but Gardner's lay-up and then his three-pointer with 1.5 seconds left cut the gap to 17-16 at the quarter.
Five more points from Gardner put the Beavers on top, 22-17, but Maloney rallied and eventually went up, 35-28, as Rashamell Vereen hit a three-pointer, Belin converted an old-fashioned three-point play and Johrone Bunch got a hoop thanks to goaltending.
Weaver got the last two baskets of the half from Gardner and Walter Jones to make it 35-32 at intermission.
In the fateful third period, Maloney still had a 45-40 lead midway through. A three by Gardner and a basket by Charles Moreland gave Weaver a 48-47 edge. Maloney led, 52-51, with two minutes left but Gardner made two free throws, a lay-up and a three and Walter Waite added a basket as the Beavers went up, 60-54, going into the last eight minutes.
Maloney got within three, 73-70, on Belin's score with 55 seconds left but Weaver made seven-of-eight free throws from then on and Maloney could not get any open looks for three-pointers as the Beavers pulled away to win their seventh overall state title. Maloney has never won a state crown.
Gardner (36 points, four steals, three assists) was a unanimous MVP pick. Jones finished with 12 points and Nick Talbert and Moreland had ten points each for Weaver, which finished 22-3.
Maloney, which was 26-1, got 24 points and 12 rebounds from Belin. Johrone Bunch had 16 points and eight boards, Vereen scored 11 and had five assists and Stephen Reyes had 10 points.
Class M
When Waterford's Anthony Malhoit got loose for the first basket of the second half, the Lancers thought they were back in the Class M state championship game with Weston.
But that was one of the very few times Waterford's 6-4 star was able to shake loose from the defense of Jeff Ledwick and several teammates and the result was the Trojans were able to ease their way to a 59-35 win.
"We were prepared for the box-and-one and triangle-and-two but the problem is so much of our offense runs through Anthony and we don't have a great shooting team," said Waterford coach Mark Capasso.
"Jeff took him right out of the game and took them out of their offense," said Weston's first-year coach, Billy Lovett, whose team had knocked off Kolbe to win the South-West Conference tournament. "And Mark Shaw took the kid (Trevor) Hendry out of what he wanted to do."
Waterford, something of a surprising finalist, stayed with Weston early and were within two, 16-14, at the quarter.
"When we had the lead (early in the game) we were thinking about pulling the ball out and slowing the game down," Capasso said. "But they were very athletic."
The Trojans also had 6-9 center John Galvin, who has some polished low-post moves and shoots from inside with both hands. And they had 6-4 Thomas Montelli, the grandson of legendary St. Joseph-Trumbull coach Vito Montelli. The youngster was a terror on the glass and also contributed four assists.
(Because of the size) "We wanted to defend them from the inside out and hope they were not hitting their outside shots, but they were," said Capasso. "And every time we tried to pressure them, they went right past us, but when we were down, we had to take some chances."
After Malhoit's basket got Waterford within 31-25, the Trojans took over.
They scored 10 points in the remainder of the quarter and allowed none. Montelli had six of the points and Galvin and Ben Kosinski each had a basket.
By the end of three, it was 41-25 and mounting.
Weston scored the first six points of the final period and the game was well done.
Galvin, named the game MVP, finished with 20 points, 15 rebounds and four blocked shots and Montelli scored 123 and had nine rebounds as Weston won that battle, 46-20. Kosinski scored 13.
Hendry finished with 13 points for Waterford, which did not help itself by shooting 25-percent (12-for-48) from the floor.
Weston finished at 24-4 and Waterford at 20-8.
Class S
The first one is always the best.
That's essentially what East Windsor coach George Thomas said after his team won its first-ever state basketball championship, 53-48, over Cromwell in the Class S title game in front of 2,432 fans at The William Detrick Gymnasium at Central Connecticut State University Sunday afternoon.
"It's a dream that's now a reality," said Thomas. "There's no better feeling. I could not be prouder of my team, my school and my town. This is a great thing for our town and all the players who played before share a part of this."
It didn't look like East Windsor would be winning anything early on. Cromwell raced to an 11-2 lead midway through the first quarter and led throughout the first half, taking a 25-19 lead at intermission. But while the Cromwell faithful were up and cheering, Thomas had another take.
"We felt pretty good down by six at the half considering our top scorer hadn't scored," said Thomas.
That scorer was Dan Gonzalez. The 6-1 senior came in averaging near 30 points per game in the tournament and was coming off a 38-point effort in the semi-finals against top-seeded Coginchaug including the game-tying three-pointer in the final seconds. But for the first 16 minutes, the kid had nothing.
"I thought we played very good defense against him," said Cromwell coach John Pinone, a defense that featured Isaiah Salafia, a freshmen.
"It was not fun trying to guard him," said Salafia. "He's a great player. I had a lot of help; I played him, but I got a lot of help from my teammates."
Gonzalez wound up with 13 points and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. It was Gonzalez who jump-started his club in the second half.
"I thought a key to our second half was Dan getting started," said Thomas, referring to Gonzalez' two buckets in the third quarter. The two baskets fueled a 10-2 East Windsor run that gave the winners the lead.
"I really thought our defense was key in the third quarter, said Thomas. "Our defense set a tone and everybody chipped in. We held them to six points in the quarter and that was very important.
"We know that a game in the 40s and 50s is what Cromwell wanted because they play defense so well. But we can play defense, too."
Gonzalez' basket with 3:49 left in the third gave East Windsor its first lead at 29-27. The game seesawed for the next eight minutes until East Windsor took the lead for keeps on Marc Novak's two free throws with 3:36 to play.
From that point until the end, East Windsor made just one hoop. But it made 10 freebies to hold off Cromwell down the stretch.
Cromwell closed to within a basket at 50-48 on John Schmaltz' three-pointer with 19.1 seconds left, but the Panthers were forced to foul and East Windsor made their freebies. Gonzalez made six free throws in the final 3:16.
"I couldn't be prouder of the group of gentlemen I've coached the last four months," said Pinone. "They fought to the end. We just didn't get that stop we needed. I know the pain of losing, but these guys gave us a tremendous ride."
Gonzalez and Dan Christenson led the winners with 13 points each and Stephen Marshall had 11.
John Schmaltz led Cromwell with 13. Tyler Burkhart, Justin Martin and Salafia each had 11.