New London boys, Hillhouse girls are Connecticut basketball champions

Legacies were in play at the CIAC boys and girls basketball championships this past weekend at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville.

The Hillhouse (New Haven) girls were trying to extend one and the New London boys were trying to solidify theirs. Both were successful. Hillhouse held its position as the No. 1 team in the state writers/coaches poll and New London will likely do the same today.

New London completed a perfect season at 27-0 with a convincing 63-55 victory over top seed Northwest Catholic (West Hartford) in the Class L final. New London head coach Craig Parker said it should bring a measure of long overdue respect for his program and it was the culmination of a brilliant career for senior guard Torin Childs-Harris, who scored more than 1,600 career points but until Saturday didn't have a state championship on his resume.

"Both (happiness and relief)," said Childs-Harris, who scored 15 points and made seven steals. "I got to win the state championship with all my brothers, my team. We worked hard for this. We lost last year (in the final to Stratford), it's happiness, relief, excitement that we won it my senior year."

It was New London's ninth state title overall and first since 2005.

"All we hear when we scout games around the state is New London plays nobody," Parker said. "The difference is we win state titles at New London. We compete for state titles. I don't know what people don't understand about that. What do we have to do to prove to people. I don't understand it around the state."

After taking a 27-23 halftime lead, the Whalers kept Northwest (25-2) at bay opening a 10-point lead by the end of the third quarter. Junior Kris Dunn put on a highlight show at times while scoring a game-high 26 points with eight rebounds and three steals.

"This is going to be the legendary team in New London County," Parker said. "These kids are 27-0. I'm assuming we're going to end up No. 1 in the state. This is going to be the team other teams will have to be measured up against."

Hillhouse completed a three-peat in girls Class L with a dominating 77-50 performance against E.O. Smith (Storrs) (22-3). Senior Andreana Thomas finished her career with 26 points, four assists and three steals and junior Bria Holmes had a game-high 27 points, 11 rebounds and four assists in a game in which the Academics led E.O. Smith by about 11 points until the fourth quarter, when they blew it open outscoring the Panthers 22-6.

"It's great right now, but it's sad because I'm going to miss Andreana," Hillhouse head coach Catrina Hawley-Stewart said. "They deserve it. They worked hard on and off the court. They worked hard offseason, in-season. They have definitely kept Hillhouse on the map for many years. People will never forget about Hillhouse because of these young ladies and it means a whole lot to the city of New Haven, it means a lot to me. This is their championship. I'm just a coach. They put a lot of work into it."

Other girls championship game:
The last 3.7 seconds of the Class LL final seemed to go on forever as Mercy (Middletown) put Career (New Haven) on the free throw line twice and tried to inbounds a long pass to tie the game.

In the end, Nicole Anderson hit 1 of 2 free throws for a one-point lead and Nicole Bentley hit 1 of 2, both with 3.7 seconds left, to close out a 39-37 win for Career Magnet (New Haven).

"About three hours. I swear the rest of the game took quicker than that last couple of plays," Career head coach Kevin Walton said. "They persevered, they understood the game plan. That comes from preparation."

It looked as if Career (22-5) was going to blow out Mercy (24-3) in the first half as the Tigers shot 15 percent from the field and the Panthers took a 25-13 lead. But Mercy outplayed Career for most of the second half, taking a five-point lead with 4:40 to go on a 10-foot jumper by Cassie Santoro.

Sadie Edwards scored 15 of her game-high 16 points in the second half to lead Mercy's comeback. But Bria Moore (team-high 13 points) scored five consecutive points on two layups and a free throw to tie it before the deciding foul shots.

Anderson (11 points) had missed the back end of a two-shot foul in the Southern Connecticut Conference semifinal tournament loss to Hillhouse that would have tied the game, and she missed the front end against Mercy in those last few seconds.

"It was pretty tough but I kind of had to block (the Mercy fans) out ... I just had to forget about it and reset myself," Anderson said.

"She redeemed herself," Walton said. "I was confident. If it wasn't Bria Moore at the line this is the person that I wanted. I'm happy for the girls. They fought hard. Mercy took the lead but they didn't panic. That's a credit to the type of experience they've had over the last couple of years, so I'm proud of the way they fought through that adversity at that time of the game."

In Class M, Windham (Willimantic) (22-3) defeated Weaver (16-9) 54-46 behind double-figure scoring by Carlee Smith (13 points), Haley Mather (11) and Ali Risley (11).

In Class S, Portland (23-4) defeated Cromwell (20-4) 45-41 as Lindsey Dionne scored 14 points and Kelly Coleman 13.

Other boys championship games:
In Class LL, St. Joseph (Trumbull) (23-2) routed Fairfield Prep (20-7) 79-53 with Oscar Assie scoring a game-high 17 points.

In Class M, Trinity Catholic (Stamford) (18-9) outlasted Career (24-3) 57-51 as Kevin Lemeune scored 17 points.

In Class S, Valley Regional (Deep River) (25-2) defeated Classical Magnet (Hartford) (23-4) 70-46 as Taylor Rioux scored 18 points and had 10 rebounds.

Paul Rosano, the former assistant sport editor of The Hartford Courant and sports editor of The New Haven Register, covers Connecticut for MaxPreps.com. He may be reached at pjrosano@cox.net.