By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
There were story lines galore in the four CIAC boys’ basketball state championship games played Saturday at Central Connecticut State University (Class M, Class S) and the University of Connecticut.
There was the third Crosby-Waterbury vs. Trinity Catholic-Stamford match in four years for a crown. There was Maloney-Meriden’s attempt to erase the memory of last year when a 26-0 season went down in flames against Weaver-Hartford.
There was the first title game appearance in 47 years for Lyman Hall and the first since 1940 for Stratford.
There was Lyman Hall coming off a 1-19 season to make the tourney; Hartford Public failing to make states last year and Bloomfield recovering from a three-year drought, plus an 0-3 start exacerbated by the death of coach Gary Barcher’s mother.
Even better, there were four close games, nine decided until the final minutes.
Class LL: Crosby 82, Trinity Catholic 79
The best player on the floor came ever-so-close to carrying his team to a Class LL state championship Saturday night. But even 35 points, 12 rebounds and several emphatic dunks by Trinity Catholic’s 6-foot-7 junior Tevin Baskin couldn’t quite lift the Crusaders past Crosby.
The Bulldogs, playing the final three-plus minutes without their own star, 6-5 B.J. Monteiro, who had fouled out, held on for an 82-79 win.
Monteiro fouled out trying to stop a Baskin dunk, which made the score 68-62 after the ensuing free throw.
Trinity Catholic, 24-4, eventually got within two as Eric Jean-Guillauime made a free throw and Baskin added a basket and foul shot. But with 1:31 to play, the Bulldogs showed some bite of their own. Lavar Moore scored three times from inside to counter one basket by Jean-Guillauime as Crosby got some breathing room at 74-68.
“I think they lost a little bit of confidence when they saw Monteiro go out, but after a couple of mistakes, they settled down,” said Crosby coach Nick Augelli, who has now won two of three state championship meetings against TC in the past four years. “It was a classic Trinity-Crosby game.”
“We just needed someone to step up and play,” said Crosby guard Anthony Ireland, voted the game’s MVP. “Everyone was looking at me to step up, so I had to.”
“Anthony Ireland just played an outstanding floor game,” Augelli said.
Baskin’s two foul shots with 49.5 seconds left got the Crusaders within four, but Ireland countered that with two of his own. After a three by John O’Leary got TC within three, Ireland made two more foul shots, and following a Baskin turnover, added yet two more for an 80-73 lead with 18.6 seconds to play.
It almost was not enough. Jean-Guillauime was fouled and hit both with 11.4 seconds to go. After reserve Julio Vasquez made his only two points of the night at the line with 10.5 seconds left, the Crusaders had a last gasp.
Sub Michael Scsturchio hoisted desperation three with 1.8 seconds left. It went in and he was fouled on the play. He made the free throw and Trinity was within three. O’Leary stole the subsequent in-bounds pass, but his last-second prayer was off the side of the rim.
“Moore is the guy who killed us,” Trinity Catholic coach Mike Walsh said. “He hit the big shots, then Ireland hit the big free throws down the stretch to seal it.”
Moore led Crosby, 26-1, in scoring with 26 points while Ireland had 24 go with four assists. The Duquesne-bound Monteiro had 18 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
Beside Baskin, who hit 12-for-23 from the floor and 11-of-16 at the line, Jean-Guillauime was in double figures with 15 points and the 6-4 Smalls had eight to go with 13 rebounds for Trinity Catholic.
Class L: Maloney-Meriden 54, Lyman Hall-Wallingford 46
Maloney-Meriden coach Howie Hewitt said his team’s loss to Weaver in last year’s Class L title game was not on his mind.
“You can’t coach that way,” he said after the Spartans topped Lyman Hall-Wallingford, 54-46, in the final. “To me, it’s a dream come true to be able to coach in this game two years in a row. I’m humbled to even think about it. To win a state championship regardless of whether you won it last year still means a great deal to us, to our fans, to our program.”
His players were a little more mindful of the past.
“We had to play hard today because of last year,” said guard Rashamell Vereen, the game MVP. “We had to play hard, hustle, get back on defense.”
“Last year was painful for all of us,” said Johrone Bunch, who knocked down a couple of big three-pointers when the Spartans put some distance between themselves and the stubborn Trojans. “We came back strong. We promised ourselves we were going to get back here and finish our mission.”
The game turned in the final 3:33 of the third quarter when Maloney, 21-6, took the lead for good. Trailing 28-27 after four-straight points by Jefferson Lora, the Spartans held Lyman Hall scoreless for the rest of the period. Vereen scored three baskets and Bunch made a three-pointer to put Maloney in front, 36-28.
Don Dempsey got the first hoop of the fourth quarter for Lyman Hall but Vereen drove for a basket and Bunch knocked down a three to make it 41-30.
“We had some crucial turnovers at critical points in the game and in the third quarter, our shots didn’t fall,” said Lyman Hall coach Mike Conner, whose team was in a title game for the first time in 47 years. “Our game plan was if we could hold them under 60, we’d be in the game, but when you’re not hitting shots, it’s tough.”
Vereen finished with 22 points and four steals for Maloney while Bunch scored 14. The workman-like Steve Reyes had 13 rebounds.
Dan Weidmann led the Trojans, 21-7, with 14 points while Lora, a 6-7 sophomore, had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. He also blocked three shots. Economopoulos scored 11 for the Trojans, 21-8.
“We were looking for a fairy-tale ending but it didn’t happen,” said Weidmann. “We put it all out on the floor. That was a great Maloney team we played and he (Vereen) was unbelievable. I don’t know if you are going to find a better point guard right now in the state of Connecticut. That kid just totally took the game over in the second half. He won that basketball game for them.”
Class M: Stratford 66, Hartford Public 55
For most coaches, having the lead is a good thing.
Stratford’s Paul Dudzinski looks at it a bit differently.
“It’s a little easier to coach when you’re behind,” he said after his team had rallied to defeat Hartford Public, 66-55, for the Class M state title. “You know what you have to do. You have to score quickly and you have to get stops. It looked pretty grim for us, but these kids never quit.”
The win was the 200th of Duzinski’s coaching career.
The Red Devils, 22-6, were behind, 48-40, entering the fourth quarter. A pair of three-pointers by Russell Payton and a basket by Tom Massey off a Payton assist got Stratford within two, 50-48, with 6:45 left in the quarter. Daryl McCoy hit a foul shot for the Owls but Massey made another lay-up to make it 51-50. After Danny Lawhorn scored for Public, and Joseph Charles hit a foul shot for Stratford, Tim Martin stepped up.
First, the 5-11 senior drove the lane, scored and was fouled. His free throw gave his team a 54-53 lead with 2:24 to play.
“We set a high ball screen,” Martin said. “The guard came over the screen but the big man didn’t hedge. I saw an opening and I just went.”
Public missed a shot and Stratford got the ball. Martin, who is going to UConn to play baseball, dribbled around for a bit and was fouled. He made both free throws and repeated the process twice more as the lead grew to 60-53 with 33.7 seconds left.
“We were in the one-and-one, so we just tried to attack,” said Martin, voted the game MVP. “We thought if we didn’t make the shot, we could get fouled.”
Martin doesn’t start for Stratford. Because of an early-season injury, he was unable to practice and volunteered to come off the bench.
“We’ve got so many guys who can play,” Martin said. “It doesn’t make any difference who starts.”
“They went on their run,” said Public coach Kurt Reis. “It was just a matter of time before they went on a run and it was a matter of us withstanding it. I thought we did, but they made the foul shots. I thought we had a couple of good shots. If they had gone in, you’d be talking about us winning right now.”
Martin, who made eight of nine free throws and was credited with five steals, led the Red Devils with 16 points. Joseph Charles scored a dozen while 6-4 sophomore Brandon Sherrod had 10 rebounds and Kwame Burwell had five assists. Stratford played 10 players and all of them scored.
For the Owls, 19-6, Jackson scored 21 and Lawhorn had 12 before fouling out. Daryl McCoy had 13 rebounds to go with eight points and Rasheem McCoy had five assists.
Class S: Bloomfield 78, Kolbe Cathedral 71
It’s not going to go down as an artistic success, not with 64 turnovers and 86 missed shots, but the Bloomfield-Kolbe Cathedral game was entertaining enough. The underdog Warhawks (15-10) held on to enough of the remnants of a once-15 point lead for a 78-71 win.
The coaches didn’t see it that way, but the game was mainly a matter of two teams trying to play at 100 miles per hour when they had the ability to go at about 65.
“If you look at the turnovers, both defenses were a little ahead of the offenses,” said Kolbe coach John Pfohl, whose team had 35 of the turnovers and missed 37 shots from the floor and 14 from the foul line. “Both defenses really disrupted the other team’s offense.”
“Our problem all year has been finishing,” said Bloomfield mentor Gary Barcher, more or less alluding to the problem. “We work hard to create a turnover and then we throw the ball away. But we made enough today to keep them on their heels ands we made enough free throws.”
In the final 1:17, Bloomfield made eight straight at the foul line as Kolbe clawed to get back into the game.
“When you are down 15 with four minutes to go, you ask yourself how you’re going to get back into it,” said Pfohl. “We said we weren’t going to let them go out that way. We worked our behinds off but you’ve got to give them credit. They made their free throws. Frankly, I was shocked at how well they shot, based on what I had heard and the box scores I had seen.”
“They jumped on us pretty hard,” said Kolbe’s Zenaabay Moore. “We didn’t execute as well as we could have and it hurts to know I think we’re a better team than they are … but the score’s the score.”
Bloomfield, seeded 21st in the field, broke from a 4-4 tie to take a 10-4 lead midway through the first period and it was 12-8 after one.
The Cougars opened the second period on a run, tying the game before Bloomfield could get the ball into forecourt and taking a 15-12 lead on a lay-up by Zenaabay Moore with 5:25 left in the half. Bloomfield responded with 10 straight points, five by 6-5 sophomore Denzell Jones. For a 22-15 lead. A Zenaabay Moore three cut the lead to 26-23 at the half.
Again, Kolbe had early success in the third period and tied the game at 34 on a hoop by sophomore guard Ronnie Underwood with 3:37 left. Ashar Whittaker broke a 36-all tie with a three-pointer for Bloomfield and later added another trey as the Warhawks took a 49-42 lead after three.
Game MVP Rashad Moore and Marcus Cooper then led a Bloomfield surge which pushed the margin to 65-50 with 3:34 to play.
With Zenaabay Moore scoring nine points, Underwood and Dominique Langston two each and Andrea Beckford adding a three-point play, Kolbe cut the lead to 70-66 with 49.5 seconds left. Then, Rashad Moore threw a long pass which Cooper grabbed over Underwood and converted into a lay-up with 46.1 seconds left. D.J. Ellis hit a three for Kolbe to make it 72-69, but first Rashad Moore, then Shomari Cowan hit a pair of free throws and Cooper converted another long pass into a lay-up with 25.5 seconds to go and the Warhawks were safely up, 78-69.
Rashad Moore, who missed the first half of the year with academic problems, finished with 22 points, six assists and five rebounds but didn’t start strongly.
“I started the game a little bit nervous and I had two early fouls,” Moore said. “Coach told me to go sit down at the end of the bench and get my head together.”
Cooper had 18 points and 10 rebounds while Whittingham scored 12. For Kolbe, 21-7, Underwood had 20 points, Beckford had 13 points and 12 rebounds, Langston had 12 points, eight rebounds and seven assists and Zenaabay Moore scored 17.
