By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
Conference tournament time is at hand for girls’ basketball teams across Connecticut.
Some leagues, like the Southern Connecticut Conference, start this week. Many begin Saturday and all are underway by Monday.
The SCC changed its format this year and now allows any team which qualified for the CIAC state tournament to play in the league event as well. The rationale is that rather than allowing a team to sit idle for a week or more before state tourney play, it will give teams a chance to play on. Of course, the fact seven of the conference’s 14 tournament teams will be done before the weekend and four more will be erased then isn’t being talked up as much.
Most leagues go with an eight-team format with quarterfinals Saturday and semis and finals next week. Others include four teams and just play next week.
Meanwhile, Holy Cross-Waterbury, winners of 45-straight, top the New Haven Register media/coaches poll. New Britain, 18-1, remains second with Mercy-Middletown, 18-2, third. Mercy drew one of two byes in the SCC tournament and will play a quarterfinal game Saturday. Bulkeley-Hartford (17-1) and Trinity Catholic-Stamford (17-1) round out the top five.
Sixth is Career-New Haven, 17-2, and owner of the other bye in SCC play. The Panthers also will play a quarterfinal Saturday. Lauralton Hall-Milford, 17-1, will begin looking for its first-ever South-West Conference tourney title Saturday and is ranked seventh in the poll. The last three spots are held by Kolbe Cathedral-Bridgeport (15-2 and winners of 13 straight), East Hampton (19-0) and Notre Dame-Fairfield, 15-3.
Avon is ranked 11th in the poll and was selected as the Connecticut Sun high school girls’ team of the week. Avon, which clinched its eighth regular-season North Central Connecticut Conference title in the last nine years, defeated East Catholic, 66-32, and Bolton, 60-48. Against East Catholic, junior Lindsay Horbatuck had 12 points and 26 rebounds. Juniors Lauren Primovic, Jen Marcus and Sam Riccio were in double figures as well and combined on seven three-point baskets. Against Bolton, Marcus scored 27, Primovic had 13 and Horbatruck had a dozen rebounds.
Boys’ basketball has another week of regular-season play before it goes into conference tournament mode.
Wilbur Cross-New Haven, 18-0, leads the New Haven Register media-based poll with Windsor, 17-0, second. Cross needs one more win to lock up the top seed in the Southern Connecticut Conference tournament while Windsor is already locked into the top spot in the Central Connecticut Conference tournament.
Crosby-Waterbury, 16-1, is third, followed by New London, 15-2 and Hillhouse-New Haven, 15-2. Hillhouse has a chance to avenge both its losses in rematches with Wilbur Cross and Xavier-Middletown.
Trinity Catholic-Stamford, 15-2, is sixth with Norwich Free Academy, 16-1, seventh. St. Joseph-Trumbull, 14-3, lost twice but is still eighth with Notre Dame-West Haven and Xavier-Middletown tied for ninth.
Hockey: Hamden No. 1
As expected, Hamden took over the top spot in the New Haven Register media/coaches poll in boys’ hockey after knocking off previous No. 1 South Windsor, 6-1, last Saturday. Hamden is 13-3 overall. South Windsor, 15-1, remains second with East Haven, 15-2, third.
Notre Dame-West Haven, 10-5-1, is fourth with Ridgefield, 13-3, fifth. Glastonbury, 11-2-1 is sixth with Conard-West Hartford, 10-3-1, seventh. Then comes Notre Dame-Fairfield, 9-6-1; Darien, 13-5 and Trinity Catholic-Stamford, 14-3, with two-straight losses.
Only a couple of leagues in the state conduct tournaments. The Southern Connecticut Conference, for instance, feels strongly both ways. Division I coaches are adamant they do not want a playoff since they believe it will lead to many instances of teams playing one another four times (two regular season, one conference tournament, one state tournament) and they are often correct. Division II coaches are in favor of the playoff and will have a four-team tournament next week.
Wrestling: Danbury No. 1
The final regular-season poll of wrestling coaches conducted by the Norwich Bulletin has Danbury (22-0) on top, followed by Ledyard (20-2), Bacon Academy (32-4), New Milford (25-1), Middletown (27-2), Berlin (21-8), Windham (19-11), Bristol Central (23-0), Daniel Hand-Madison (20-5) and Jonathan Law-Milford (25-5).
Hand (which topped Law), Berlin (which beat Middletown) and Ledyard (over Bacon and Windham) were among conference tournament champs.
State divisional tournaments are this weekend with the state open scheduled for next weekend.
