SPB's High School Sports

The last Connecticut Post coverage team has been ousted from the SCC tournament when No. 4 Career felled No. 5 Notre Dame-West Haven 39-32 Saturday in East Haven.

In other games, No. 1 Hillhouse defeated Hand 65-49, for the third time this year, No. 7 Sheehan beat No. 2 Lyman Hall, this time by a 46-37 score. No. 6 Hamden took out Quinnipiac champion Xavier 63-53.

The semifinals will be played Monday at East Haven. Hamden vs. Sheehan at 6 and Hillhouse vs. Career at 7:45.

St. Joseph was the only lower seed to win in Saturday’s FCIAC quarterfinals at Fairfield Warde.

Led by double doubles from Oscar Assie and Greg Langston, the fifth-seeded Cadets toppled Harding 58-44. They advance to face No. 1 Trinity Catholic in the semifinals, which will be now played Tuesday at Fairfield Warde due to Sunday’s impending snowstorms.

Trinity Catholic defeated Staples 64-51, but this game was one of the day’s best. Staples was within six points late in the third, eliciting “over-rated” chants from its student section. But a miracle half-court shot put the Wreckers down nine and trinity scored the first bucket in the fourth quarter to go up by 11. Game over.

Elsewhere, Stamford survived Greenwich 58-57. The Cardinals had two chances to win the game but missed. The Black Knights will face Central, which buried Danbury 89-56, behind 19 points from Diontay Washington and 12 from Jerome Parkins.

Stratford’s 34-game win streak has come to an ignominious end. Ahead by 18 points at halftime, the Red Devils couldn’t hold off a wild Kolbe Cathedral comeback and lost 82-81 in overtime in the SWC quarterfinals on Saturday at Weston.

Dominique Langston and Ronnie Underwood both had 26 points apiece. Underwood hit the game-tying basket with 6.8 seconds remaining in regulation and Langston made a pair of foul shots with 26 seconds left in OT for the winning margin. Stratford had plenty of chances to win this game, but finished 19 of 36 from the foul line, including just 5 of 13 in the game’s final six minutes of play.

Kolbe Cathedral, the eighth seed, advances to play Notre Dame-Fairfield. In the other SWC semifinal we’ll get Bunnell vs. New Fairfield.

Platt Tech’s victory over Bullard-Havens in a playdown game Wednesday filled the last remaining spot in the CSC bracket.

Here’s how this league breaks down:

Quarterfinals, Friday
(at higher seeds)
No. 8 Grasso Tech at No. 1 Abbott Tech, 6
No. 7 Wilcox Tech at No. 2 Capital Prep, 6
No. 6 Platt Tech at No. 3 Vinal Tech, 6
No. 5 Prince Tech at No. 1 Ellis Tech, 6

Semifinals, Monday at New Haven Athletic Center
5 and 7 p.m.

Championship, Wednesday at New Haven Athletic Center
6:30

At long last, the SCC boys quarterfinals are set with the conclusion o f Thursday first-round games. Here’s a shock: all the top seeds won.

And we needed this for…what again?

Here’s how it went down. Notre Dame-West Haven, our only local in this tournament, advanced.
No. 4 Career 66, No. 13 Cheshire 62
No. 5 Notre Dame-WH 60, No. 12 East Haven 40
No. 6 Hamden 62, No. 11 West Haven 45
No. 7 Sheehan 71, No. 10 North Haven 63
No. 8 Hand 78, No. 9 Wilbur Cross 59

Here are your quarterfinals matchups, to be played Saturday at East Haven.
No. 1 Hillhouse vs. No. 8 Hand, noon
No. 4 Career vs. No. 5 Notre Dame-West Haven, 1:45 p.m.
No. 2 Lyman Hall vs. No. 7 7 Sheehan, 3:30 p.m.
No. 3 Xavier vs. No. 6 Hamden, 5:15 p.m.

The results are in and the seeds have been set. Here are the schedules for the SWC and FCIAC boys basketball quarterfinals on Saturday:

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Here’s a look at the FCIAC playoff standings heading into tonight’s finale. Plenty can still happen with Bassick traveling to Stamford in a fight for its playoff life.

The Lions need to win to get in. But in the event of a loss, will be rooting hard for Harding, which can knock New Canaan out of the mix, and McMahon, which can knock Staples out. The Lions lost to both New Canaan and Staples during the regular season.

Here’s how it looks.

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In the months after giving a verbal commitment to Temple, Keith Carlos started to have his doubts. The former Central football standout, who had just completed a second strong year at Lackawanna (Pa.) Community College, began to think he took himself out of the recruiting game too quickly.
Just two days before the Feb 2. National Signing Day, Carlos told Temple he wasn’t going to sign.
“I just think I made my decision too early,” Carlos said. “I didn’t explore all of my options. I should have given it more thought. I thought I owed it to my family and to myself to shoot for the stars, you know?”
With the help of Central assistant coach John Carolina, Carlos put out some feelers. Almost three weeks later, wound up catching what he believes is a bigger fish. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound tailback and receiver accepted a scholarship offer to play at Purdue University next fall.

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