Stratford beat back short-handed Harding tonight, 50-40, in the first game between the two neighboring schools since 1985. Brandon Sherrod scored 14 points and had 20 rebounds as Stratford advanced to the Class L quarterfinals.
Harding, which was playing without leading scorer Mike Davis (arrested on robbery charges last week), shot just 14 of 54 and was felled by a 11-0 Stratford third-quarter run. Stephon Patterson gave Stratford a lift with six points off the bench during the third quarter.
Harding coach Charlie Bentley did not make any comments on any retirement plans after the game, saying only, “I haven’t thought about it.”
Stratford (2-1), faces NVL finalist Torrington–featuring 6-foot-7 center Jordan Williams–in the quarterfinals on Monday.
News wasn’t so pleasant for Bunnell, which fell to Rockville 70-58. Notre Dame-Fairfield also lost, to Northwest Catholic 65-52. Bassick lost to No. 25 Bulkeley 77-68 in Bridgeport, a game marred by a
Trinity Catholic won again, beating woefully out of place Woodstock Academy 80-27 (couldn’t we get Kolbe Cathedral into this spot, instead?)
Trinity plays Bulkeley, Northwest Catholic takes on Rockville, Hand takes on Lyman Hall an Stratford plays Torrington.
Kolbe Cathedral boys beat Windsor Locks 81-54 and advance to the Class S quarterfinals against No. 3 Canton on Monday. Elsewhere in Class S, Capital Prep and Hyde advance to face each other on the top half of the bracket. Cromwell and Stafford advance. Top-seeded Terryville advances to face St. Paul.
Elsewhere, Kolbe Cathedral’s 47-game girls basketball win streak came to a stunning end with a 75-68 loss to Hillhouse in the Class L quarterfinals. But Fairfield Warde won the first game at East Haven, setting up a date with Wethersfield in the semifinals on Monday.
To the CIAC football playoff people, why don’t we start the football season a week earlier?? This would allow an extra week of time to fit in these playoff games instead of having 4 games in 17 days for these kids. It could be a worse case of 4 games in 24 days.
All of the Harding teams I have seen play for the past 50 years-this is the least talented of the bunch.