Ron P. Coderre

Boys’ basketball inaugurated the “new” Putnam High School gymnasium with the CNB a Division of ESB Clipper Holiday Classic.  New facility.  Same winner.

Defending champion, Killingly came to Putnam and found their confidence, winning a pair of games and beating host Putnam in the championship contest to walk off with the title.  Tourtellotte, which lost in the opening round to Killingly, won the consolation contest. 

In the Centaur Classic Holiday Tournament, Greenwich High School travelled across the state to claim the championship.  Greenwich beat host Woodstock Academy in the title game, handing the Centaurs and coach Aaron Patterson their initial loss of the season.

Ellis Tech dropped a pair of games and remains in search of its first victory of the young season.  Plainfield played one game over the holidays and came away with a victory over Windham Tech.

Marianapolis was the lone prep school in action.  The Golden Knights journeyed to Massachusetts for the Belmont Hill Tournament and came out of three games with a pair of losses and a single victory.

Redmen Repeat

Defending Clipper Classic champion Killingly and coach Jimbo Crabtree rode into Putnam and repeated something that’s getting to be a routine, winning the championship.  Killingly bested the host Putnam Clippers 53-40 in a game that was closer than the final score might indicate. 

Putnam hung around for most of the contest but didn’t have the horses to pull off the victory.  Trailing 25-16 at intermission, the Clippers made runs early in the fourth period that brought them to within one point of Killingly but simply ran out of gas as tournament Most Outstanding player Brendan Turner took over control of the game.

Turner, who has battled injuries for the past two years, led the Redmen to the win with 13 points and was joined in double figures by All-Tournament selection Chace Wood who also had 13 markers.  Putnam was paced by sophomore Dan Porcic who also posted 13 points despite being dogged by the Killingly defense all evening.

In its only other game, the 2-1 Redmen were dropped by Griswold 50-43 despite a dozen points from freshman Luke Desaulnier and 11 points from Wood.

Putnam took to the highway for its only other game and emerged from East Granby with a 55-52 closely contested victory.  Porcic with 19 points paced the Putnam offense, which placed two other players in double digits.  Brevon Harmon and Zach Evans each chipped in a dozen points in the win.  Evans’ points all came from beyond three-point range for the 2-1 Clippers.

Tourtellotte, which had already beaten Ellis Tech earlier in the season, turned the trick once more in the Classic consolation contest.  The Tigers ran away with a 60-36 win on a team effort as nine players got into the scoring column led by Evan Ware with 16 points.  Troy Morin contributed 10 points for the 3-1 Tigers of coach Neil Bernier.  Ellis Tech’s Trent Raymond led all scorers with 24 points.

In its only other contest the Golden Eagles lost to Wheeler 69-32, falling to 0-5 on the young season.  Raymond with 15 points was once again the team’s leading scorer.

Woodstock Academy got to the title game of the Centaur Holiday Classic by beating Cheney Tech in the opening round 59-46.  Three Centaurs carried the bulk of the offense, scoring 54 of Woodstock’s 59 points.  Nick Short was the leading scorer with 23 points followed by Bryce Jarrett (16) and Cuinn Stevenson (15).

In the tile game Greenwich prevailed 54-40 with a strong second half performance.  Stevenson with 12 markers was the lone double-digit scorer for the 2-1 Centaurs.

In Willimantic, Plainfield prevailed over Windham Tech 73-47.  The Panthers rode the coattails of Liam Jacobs who was game-high scorer with 25 points.  He was joined in double figures by Jeff Nicolosi with 11 and Elijah Malboeuf with 16.  Plainfield is 3-2 on the year.

Marianapolis Prep struggling to find the win column lost two games in the Belmont Hill Tournament before finally picking up its second win of the season.  The Golden Knights, who are 2-8, beat Roxbury Latin 54-43.  They were paced in the win by a trio of double figure scorers led by Dominique Senat with 15 points.  He was joined in double figures by Joe Del Ricci (14) and Marley Blommers (11).

The Knights of coach Andrew Vitale opened the tourney with a 68-37 loss at the hands of the host Belmont Hill.  They then lost to Nobles 53-48 despite a 17 point performance by Audric Sandoval.