Archive for January, 2008

Nice win by Bassick…

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Nice win by Bassick the other night, down 11 with 4 minutes remaining but rallying to beat New Canaan 72-70. A week after defeating Westhill on a buzzer-beater by William Gill, Mike Lomax fired his own shot through New Canaan’s hearts at the buzzer.

Here’s the story that appeared in today’s paper. Lomax shot lifts Bassick over New Canaan. Just one quick correction, Lomax scored 23 points not 20 as mentioned.

The biggest shots of the night might have been the ones Lomax took to tie the game. Down 70-67 with 21 seconds remaining, Lomax was fouled attempting a 3-pointer. Admittedly not Bassick’s best foul shooter, Lomax calmly stepped to the line and made all three.

Ironically, those were just the fifth foul shots Bassick took all game. After going 4-for-4 from the line in the first quarter, they didn’t take any in the second or third quarters. Bassick finished 8-of-9 from the line compared to New Canaan’s 14-of-21 — which irked the Bassick coaching staff some.

Not mentioned in the story was an incident that nearly cost the Lions. Ahead 24-16 after the first quarter, Bassick tried to substitute newcomer Craig Baldwin into the game. He had just been granted a waiver of Bridgeport’s transfer rule by the Board of Education. But Bassick failed to put him on the roster, costing the Lions a technical foul, which New Canaan converted into two points. It looked as if it would loom large, but Lomax’ heroics erased the mistake.

ELSEWHERE: A couple of shakeups in the SWC. Barlow pulls off its biggest win of the year, a 68-64 victory over Stratford. Aaron Kaufman had 24 and Jason Greenberg 19. …Though Newtown didn’t call with the result, Brookfield, which was 1-4 in the SWC heading into Thursday night, took down the Nighthawks, who were once 11-0 and have suddenly lost two of three games. …Kolbe Cathedral’s Andrae Beckford had his first big night since suffering a concussion almost a month ago. He scored 15 while teammate Dom Langston added 22 to offset a 37-point night by Steve Zazuri in a 74-64 win over Masuk. …In the SCC Fairfield Prep’s struggles continued when West Haven’s Ruben Parra nailed a jumper to lifed the Westies to a 51-49 victory. …Andrei Oztemel scored 18 points and Staples did a nice job, but the Wreckers lost to Trinity by 10 53-43
Finally, Harding put away suddenly suspect Westhill easily, 68-51 to keep pace in the FCIAC race. Still no news on the Charlie Bentley front, except to say that nothing has changed.

SPB

St. Joseph 76, Harding 74 … beyond the game story

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It was a special night for St. Joseph, as it continues its drive for a first FCIAC championship in eight years. Read the game story here: Langston leads St. Joseph past Harding

Bolstered by the packed, sold out gymnasium, highlighted by the an overflowing student crowd directing their chants at the arch-rival sitting on the other side of the floor made for an electric atmosphere

There were plenty of heroes, like little-used reserve Matt Marconi, who came in for injured sub— Matt Delmonte —and made two big shots as St. Joseph made its comeback from a 14-point deficit.

But nobody was a bigger hero than sophomore Greg Langston , who’s been great since coming back from the football knee injury that kept him from playing his freshman year.

While Langston has averaged over 15 points per game, this was his breakout. He scored 23 of 26 points in the second half (13 in the fourth quarter) as St. Joseph came back from a 14-point third quarter deficit to win 76-74.

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Newtown’s still undefeated? Yikes.

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Though much of Friday night’SPBs proceedings focused on Harding’s game against Central (at least around Bridgeport), people packed the gymnasium just off I-84 to see a pretty good team from New Milford take a crack at knocking off undefeated Newtown.

What they got was an absolute destruction–a 70-43 wipeout that must have had several observers rethinking their opinions about the suddenly 11-0 Nighthawks.

Led by 20 points from Mike Maher, 12 from Kevin Troy and silent but deadly contributions from the Smith twins (Dan and Jason), Newtown led 36-18 at halftime and cruised.

Now, I’ll be the first to say that Newtown’s schedule hasn’t exactly been murderer’s row. Noticeably absent is anybody named Bunnell, Stratford, Masuk (despite its struggles) or Kolbe Cathedral. Newtown also didn’t play Central out of conference like it has the last few seasons.

Newtown’s state rankings this season has reflected that sentiment.

They did, however, sweep past a pair of also-ran FCIAC teams and beat 8-3 ND-Fairfield by 15 in one of the first games of the year.

While Newtown should grab more state votes the longer they stay unbeaten, don’t look for them to crack anything close to the top 10 until February.

That’s when the big boys come calling. Newtown, which plays Masuk and Pomperaug this week, won’t see the SWC’s top teams–Stratford, Notre Dame-Fairfield, Kolbe Cathedral and Bunnell–until what is shaping up to be one mother of a finale.

Until then, keep your eyes on the the Nighthawks.

In other action Friday: St. Joseph didn’t play great, but stayed beaten by beating Norwalk in a game moved to Friday afternoon. Nick Gerrity continued his scoring surge with 23. …Tyrell Moore went off for 22 as Ansonia topped Naugatuck by 15. …O’Brien Tech’s Richard Marsh scored 25, but Platt Tech’s Chiag Nnodum scored 17 to earn a 64-47 CSC victory. …Masuk got off the SWC snide with a 62-53 victory over Pomperaug. It was the Panthers’ first league win of the season. …Greg Mangano of Notre Dame-WH had yet another monster night–23 points, 18 rebounds, four blocks and, the scorekeepers even saw fit to give him credit for two dunks in an 80-40 win over Law. …Seymour, West Haven and Barlow won. …Shelton lost by 5 to Branford.

Check here to get all of Friday’s box scores. If you’re looking for our roundups, features and game stories, please check connpost.com/highschoolbasketball daily.


SPB

Bentley accusations: fair or foul?

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It’s just not boys basketball season in Bridgeport without some controversy–be it over something as benign as a residency issue or something far more tragic, like some things we’ve seen over at Bassick the last year.

On Friday, Harding coach Charlie Bentley was a no-show to a pretty big game against Trinity Catholic down in Stamford, thus beginning our first controversy of the year.

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Polls & Rankings

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For those of you who care (because, frankly, I can’t stand polls), here’s the latest boys basketball media poll, diligently released by Hoops Morelli.

Media Top 10 BOYS’ BASKETBALL poll
Team Points Last

1. Hillhouse (7-0) (13)…………………..444…….1
2. Maloney (7-0) (2)……………………..394…….2
3. Wilbur Cross (7-0)……………………366…….3
4. Holy Cross (8-0)………………………356…….4
5. New London (7-0)…………………….308…….5
6. Trinity Catholic (6-1)…………………286…….6
7. Windsor (8-0)…………………………283……..7
8. Harding (7-0)………………………….232……..9
9. Crosby (6-1)…………………………..204……..8
10. St. Joseph (6-1)……………………..166…..NR
11. Glastonbury (6-1)……………………163
12. East Catholic-Manchester (5-1)…..142
13. Xavier (6-1)……………………………111
14. Norwich Free Academy (6-1)……..110
T15. Northwest Catholic (5-1)…………..67
T15 Wilby (7-1)…………………………….67
17. New Canaan (7-0)…………………….56
18. Bassick (5-2)………………………….50
19. Sacred Heart (6-2)……………………33
20. Torrington (6-2)……………………….18
T21. Bulkeley (6-2)………………………..17
T21. East Hartford (5-2)………………….17
23. Masuk (5-2)…………………………….9
T24. Kolbe Cathedral (5-2)……………..8
T24. Notre Dame-West Haven (6-1)…..8
T26. McMahon-Norwalk (4-2)…………..7
T26. Newtown (8-0)………………………..7
The following voted:
Bill Bloxsom, Hersam-Acorn; Sean Patrick Bowley, Connecticut Post; Matt Doran, Norwalk Hour; Scott Ferrari, Greenwich Citizen; Ned Griffen, The Day of New London; Mark Jaffee, Waterbury Republican-American; Ken Lipshez, New Britain Herald; Hal Levy, Shoreline Newspapers; Joe Morelli, New Haven Register; Tom Puleo, Hartford Courant; Dave Ruden, Stamford Advocate; Don Rully, Imprint Newspapers; John Silver, Journal Inquirer of Manchester; Ben Talbott, Bird’s Eye Sports; Tiffany Ventura, Middletown Press.

And, of course, Tommy Razor’s Top 20.

Ranking/School/Record/Last Week’s Position
1. Hillhouse (7-0) (1)
2. Windsor (8-0) (2)
3. Wilbur Cross-New Haven (7-0) (4)
4. New London (7-0) (5)
5. Holy Cross-Waterbury (8-0) (6)
6. Maloney-Meriden (7-0) (7)
7. Crosby-Waterbury (6-1) (8)
8. St. Joesph’s-Trumbull (6-1) (9)
9. Trinity Catholic-Stamford (6-1) (10)
10. Harding-Bridgeport (7-0) (12)
11. Norwich Free Academy-Norwich (6-1) (14)
12. Hartford Public-Hartford (6-2) (3)
13. Wilby-Waterbury (7-1) (15)
14. East Catholic-Manchester (5-1) (16)
15. Glastonbury (6-1) (19)
16. Northwest Catholic-West Hartford (5-1) (13)
17. Sacred Heart-Waterbury (6-2) (11)
18. Torrington (6-2) (20)
19. New Canaan (7-0) (NR)
20. Xavier-Middletown (6-1) (18)
Dropped Out: Fairfield Prep-Fairfield (6-1) (17)

Looking at all of the non-regional teams out there, it looks like most people are perceiving this as a weak year for Greater Bridgeport. Can’t say I’d argue against that.

Central already has three losses; Harding just lost to Greenwich, while Kolbe Cathedral and Bassick both have yet to beat a top-10 opponent.

Hmmm….

SPB

Tony Elliott – Dead at 48

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It’s a sad day for Bridgeport sports: Tony Elliott, one of the best football players to ever come out of Bridgeport, was found dead at his home of natural causes on Monday.

This story came to us last night in the form of anonymous phone call and appeared in our paper and our website today in a story by Joel Thompson.

Tony, a defensive lineman, who was a two-time first-team Connecticut Post all-star selection and a defensive player of the year who helped Harding defeat Fairfield Prep 27-7 to win its famous 1976 MBIAC title, avenging a 17-16 loss to the Jesuits in the regular season.

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Happy New Year (now get back to work)

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Yes, still alive and well. Happy New Year to all and to all a good night.

Sifting through a half-dozen receipts to see just how tight I need to make my belt this month to pay off all the Christmas gifts and New Year’s expenses.

Meanwhile, it’s back to work today after a two-week hiatus (has it been a month since football ended?), where I’ve been busy taking stock of the winter season so far and planning what/who to cover and how in the coming weeks.

But the games wait for no one and there are a bunch Wednesday night. So tonight here will be plenty to talk about as our local teams begin (SWC, CSC) or resume (SCC, FCIAC) or continue (NVL) conference play in boys basketball.

So keep checking back. And if there’s anything

Until then, it’s off to catch Stratford and Kolbe Cathedral tangle in a non-league game at Stratford… I’m sure he doesn’t care so much, but Kolbe Cathedral coach John Pfohl is chasing win No. 300 at the school. If not tonight, he’ll get it soon.


SPB

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