Eye On The CIAC

A busy few days of championship action and the closing days of the regular season in girls basketball along with conference tournaments in other sports led to some interesting competition last week. For basketball, we have focused mainly on wins that might help teams earn the qualifying standard of 40-percent and teams in League Tournaments this week.

Speaking of the championships, Danbury followed up its Class LL Championship by winning the state Open. The team collected the win by nine points over Windham and South Windsor and Kevin Jack earned the individual title at 120-pounds for the Hatters. For more championship details check out the special edition of Linked Up.
Southington provided a bit of an upset in the Class L gymnastics championships, prevailing by a mark of 138.00-136.175 over Glastonbury which entered the meet with the highest average scores in the state. Four nine-plus point performances from Erin Malone helped the team
Kevin Jack finished first in his weight class and helped Danbury capture the Wrestling Open title. Photo by Christian Abraham – Danbury News-Times.

capture its first Class L title since 2010, ending Glastonbury’s two-year run. Daniel Hand picked up the victory in Class M, an honor it had not collected since 2007. Kendall Jerzyk scored 9.125 or better on three of the four events to lead the Tigers. Woodstock extended its run of class titles to three, collecting this one in Class S after winning the two previous Class M titles. The team score of 142.950 was the highest of any of the three class victors from the weekend competition.
League championships were prevalent last week, particularly in girls basketball, while many of the boys basketball league titles will be determined this week. Here is an effort to highlight some of the more noteworthy results from those games, along with games that has teams in position to qualify for CIAC tournaments.
Lauralton Hall’s toughest game en route to the South West Conference girls basketball title was a tight semi-final victory over Kolbe Cathedral. The squad finished the year unbeaten in the conference after knocking off Notre Dame in the championship game.
The ECC came down to a one-point decision with NFA upsetting Bacon Academy in overtime. Olivia Marks knocked down a key three in overtime to propel the team to its tournament crown.
An impressive upset in the SCC girls basketball postseason as Southington knocks off top seed Berlin in overtime. Berlin had not suffered a loss since early December. Southington’s run continued into the championship game, before being stopped by top seed Glastonbury. Glastonbury did not play a game closer than 14 points in the tournament.
Danbury girls basketball won a tight FCIAC semi-final game, snapping a long winning streak for Wilton. Danbury got a key shot block in the final seconds to capture the win, and move on to the finals where they will face second-seed Trumbull.
Key victory for Somers in girls hoops as the team won its season finale by a 63-50 score to reach that coveted 40-percent mark to qualify for the postseason.
A big fourth quarter from Karlee Alves helped Ellington erase a deficit to top Avon and earn a third-straight NCCC girls basketball title by a narrow three-point margin.
Cromwell battled to a Shoreline Conference girls basketball title in a pair of hard-fought wins over Coginchaug and Morgan, finishing with a 44-33 victory in the championship game.
Danbury captured a second-straight FCIAC girls basketball tournament title with an 11-point victory over Trumbull in the final. A 15-point edge in the second quarter was the difference as Rebecca and Rachel Gartner were picked as co-MVP.
In non-championship action, in boys basketball North Haven claimed a victory over Foran on Monday evening to help push its record to 7-10.
The SCC boys basketball tournament provided a thrilling opening-round game as third-seed Wilbur Cross outlasted six-seed Xavier 75-71 in double overtime. The semi-finals will take place today, with the finals on Tuesday evening.
A last-second lay-up from Megan Calabrese gave Torrington the NVL girls basketball title after five-straight seasons as the runners-up. Can’t do much better for drama than a two-point margin in a title game.
Great battle between Old Lyme and Old Saybrook with Old Lyme collecting a 60-56 overtime win which improved Old Lyme to 14-5 while Old Saybrook dropped to a precarious 7-10.
Ellis Tech boys basketball moved above the key .400 mark on the strength of a 59-56 win over Windham Tech, keeping them in position for a Class M tournament berth.
Similarly Grasso Tech looks to have secured a shot at the Class S tournament with a 66-58 win over Putnam which put it right at the .400 winning percentage mark.
In boys hockey Amity claimed a nice 3-2 win over Guilford on Monday evening, keeping them at the top of Division II.
Sheehan earned a thrilling win over rival Lyman Hall-Haddam-Killingworth as Cody Albert scored with 15 seconds left to play in a 3-2 victory. Sheehan now sits at 9-7 after sweeping the home-and-home with their local rivals.

RANKINGS WATCH

Each Monday we take a look at any major movement in the top-10 of the CIAC Tournament Rankings for those sports where it is provided. We will take a pass on gymnastics this week as those teams settled it on the mats this past weekend. The girls basketball rankings were put into action with the brackets which were released on Friday.

In boys basketball, the biggest move is in Class S where Capital Prep vaults up two spots to now sit atop the rankings. Kolbe Cathedral tumbled a few spots in the bottom portion of the top-10, while there were also minor shifts at the top. The top-ranked teams remained the same in the other three classes. In LL, there was no change in the top 4, and only a switch from East Hartford and Windsor in the top six. Bridgeport Central and Ridgefield both moved into the bottom portion of the top-10. In L, Bunnell vaulted up two positions into the third spot, displacing Wilbur Cross which fell to fourth. Career Magnet debuted at the eighth position and the ninth and 10th spots were also new teams.
In girls basketball, these are the rankings that filled out the brackets. And there was very little movement from a week ago. The only change from Class LL comes in the middle of the top-10 with Career Magnet and Danbury swapping spots at six and seven. That change is more than we see in L and M where last week’s top-10s were identical to those that completed the brackets this week. Class S also saw only one change, with East Windsor sliding into the 10th position, replacing Goodwin Tech.
Some fairly significant movement in the Division I of boys hockey with Simsbury making a move into the top-10 at seventh. Xavier swapped places with St. Joseph, jumping from sixth to fourth. Notre Dame-Fairfield also reappeared in the top-10 at eighth. Guilford was a big mover in Division II, rising from 10th to fifth, which saw North Branford fall from six to 10th. Daniel Hand also makes an appearance at seventh, while East Catholic also dropped a few spots. No new teams in the Division III top-10, just some shifting of the positions. Rockville-Bolton-Coventry-Lyman Memorial moved into the top-3 at third, moving up one place. New Fairfield-Immaculate dropped two spots from sixth to eighth, allowing E.O. Smith-Tolland-Windham and Sheehan to each move up one position.

CIAC On TV

It is postseason basketball time, and there will be several games available on CPTV Sports. Several live league games will be available on CPTV sports, starting with the SCC boys basketball tournament final on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The Division I and II SCC boys hockey finals will follow on Wednesday at 6 and 8 p.m. respectively. Fans can also catch replays of the wrestling state Open later in the week. And with tournament play beginning in girls basketball, check out CIAC.tv for any live coverage of tournament games.