By Dave Stewart
MaxPreps.com
When his team was in the midst of a 1-4 start earlier this season, Greenwich High School boys' basketball coach Bill Brehm said the Cardinals were in search of leadership on and off the court.
If the past four games are any indication, his players have more than answered the call.
In a week that featured many of the FCIAC's top teams in head-to-head battles, it was Greenwich that stole the spotlight. Greenwich handed Harding its first loss of the season, 75-72, last Tuesday at GHS, and followed that with a surprisingly easy 64-41 home victory over Stamford.
The wins pushed Greenwich over the .500 mark at 5-4 overall and 4-3 in the FCIAC as the league approaches the halfway point. The turnaround started at the top, Brehm said, with co-captains Russ Rosenband and Sean Massi and the rest of the senior class.
"Our captains have stepped up in a couple of different ways, both verbally and at practice, and we added one of our football players who had some medical problems, Chris Bizanzo, who is also a senior," Brehm said. "Their leadership on the floor is showing and a lot of that has come together to spark us for the new year. They knew they could do it; they just needed to find out where they had to improve. We just had to gel on the floor."
Greenwich's win over Harding was its first since the 2001-02 season and only the third against the Presidents in GHS history. It also gave the Cards some sweet revenge, as Harding defeated them twice last winter, 73-64 during the regular season and 68-64 in the FCIAC tournament quarterfinals.
Rosenband, a 6-foot-2 sharpshooter at guard, had the hot hand on offense, hitting three 3-pointers and finishing with a game-best 24 points. Chris Valentine, an emerging threat at forward, had 13 points and 10 rebounds, with Massi and Lee Remington-Steele each netting eight points.
Valentine, a 6-3 junior, has been a big part of the Cardinals' resurgence, helping to take some of the heat off Rosenband. Rosenband leads the Cards with a 16.4 points per game average, but Valentine has been coming on of late.
In addition to his 13 points against Harding, Valentine pulled down 10 rebounds. He and Rosenband scored 18 points each versus Stamford, and Valentine added 15 more boards in that game.
"It's obvious that Russ can score for us, so teams try to key on him and shut him down," Brehm said. "In order to be a good team, you've got to have other people pick up the scoring and Chris has done that. He's starting to let the game come to him, rather than trying to force things, which he did early in the season. He's great around the basket without having to handle the ball. Now we're trying to get him in the key without him having to handle it."
The Cards go even deeper than those players mentioned: junior Jon Herzog, who is averaging 6.7 assists and 7.9 points per game, runs the offense from point guard, and Brehm said there are 11 players deserving of court time.
"We're very deep. I can play 11 kids and that really helps," Brehm said. "There are not a lot of varsity teams that can throw 11 kids out there and not lose a whole lot. Sometimes when you have that many people, you get a lot of jealousy, but I don't think our kids have a lot of jealousy. They really just want to win. Maybe starting out with a couple of losses, especially to New Canaan, it kind of let our kids know that you've got to come together, you can't be jealous and you've got to work hard in practice.
"Every time they win a game now, there's going to be a bigger target on their backs because everybody's going to bring their `A' game, knowing that we're beating some good teams," Brehm added. "I really wanted to see how they reacted in Friday's game (against Stamford) and they reacted exactly the way we tried to prepare them."
In contrast, Greenwich's Tuesday victim, Harding, had a tough week. The Presidents came in undefeated but went out 7-2 overall and 5-2 in the FCIAC. Against Greenwich, senior forward Johnny Stovall had 18 points and eight rebounds, and 6-7 senior forward Cornelius Brown had 17 points and nine rebounds.
After that loss, the Presidents fell to Trinity Catholic (8-1 overall, 7-0 FCIAC) in overtime, 73-61. Tevin Baskin, Trinity's 6-6 junior star, scored 17 points; 6-2 senior forward Dejan Korac scored 18 and junior point guard Eric Jean-Guillaume scored 16.
For Harding, sophomore point guard LaQuan Mendenhall led with 17 points; Brown had 14 and Stovall had 10.
St. Joseph went 2-0 last week, knocking off a pair of conference contenders in Bassick, 70-65 on Tuesday, and New Canaan, 83-75 on Friday. St. Joe's is 8-1 overall and 7-0 in the FCIAC, with the only loss coming to Catholic Memorial of Massachusetts, 86-81, in its own Christmas Tournament. Catholic Memorial is also responsible for Trinity Catholic's only loss, having beaten the Crusaders by 78-75 in that same tournament.
Against Bassick (6-3, 5-2), St. Joe's was led by senior tri-captain Nick Gerrity, a 6-4 guard who netted 18 points. Sophomore Greg Langston, a 6-3 guard, netted 14 points and junior guard Kyle Walker scored 13. William Gill led Bassick with 17 points.
New Canaan (7-2, 5-2) led St. Joseph by 11 at 62-51 with a minute remaining in the third quarter, but the Cadets stormed back and outscored the Rams 32-13 the rest of the way. Gerrity (26 points), Langston (15) and senior tri-captain Dan Noccioli (13) were the leading scorers for the Cadets, while senior tri-captain Will Hanley, a 6-6 forward, led New Canaan with a game-best 28 points and 15 rebounds.
The St. Joe's game was the second difficult loss in a row for New Canaan (7-2 overall, 5-2 FCIAC), which, like Harding, entered the week undefeated. Last Tuesday, the Rams overcame a 13-point second-half deficit against Trinity and led by a point with four minutes to play on the Crusaders' home court. Trinity responded and went on to win, but the final 16-point margin was a bit deceiving.
The Rams were called for two intentional fouls and coach Jeff Bussey was hit with two technicals as Trinity took 16 free throws in the final 57.6 seconds. Baskin was in foul trouble and was on the bench during a 10-0 New Canaan run in the third quarter, but still finished with a game-high 20 points. Jean-Guillaume scored 15 and 6-6 senior John O'Leary had 12.
New Canaan's 6-9 junior center, Joe Sindelar, scored 15 points and Hanley had 11.The wild week leaves Trinity Catholic and St. Joseph atop of the league standings with 7-0 conference marks. Neither has a difficult week ahead, with the Crusaders facing Norwalk and Ludlowe and St. Joe's facing Darien and Norwalk. The two will clash on Monday, Feb. 11, at Trinity's Walsh Gym.
Dave Stewart, the Sports Editor of the New Canaan (Conn.) Advertiser, is a MaxPreps.com writer and photographer. He may be reached at 203-966-9541 or at sports@ncadvertiser.com .
