COUGARS CROWNED
George, Kolbe surge past ND-Fairfield in 2nd half for SWC title
STRATFORD — Kolbe Cathedral star forward Najimi George was well aware of all the streaks. Notre Dame-Fairfield had won 18 straight games, had defeated Kolbe in the last two league finals, and had topped the Cougars in four straight games.
None of that mattered to George.
Controlling the boards and scoring 19 points, including 17 in the second half, George ended all the streaks and helped second-seeded Kolbe defeat topseeded Notre Dame 68-45 in the South-West Conference championship in front of a capacity crowd at Bunnell High School Thursday evening.
The victory, in Kolbe’s fourth straight SWC finals appearance, was the team’s first league title since 2020.
“We have been getting ready for this for a whole month,” George said. “In practice, we are working on one to one. It was just defense.”
The Kolbe forward scored eight of the team’s 11 points to start the second half as part of a 20-1 run which helped the Cougars to a 41-29 lead with 5:42 remaining in the third quarter.
“We made a couple of adjustments from last game and kind of freed up Naji (George) a little bit more in space,” Kolbe coach John Pfohl said after his team improved to 21-2. “We talked about really getting on the offensive glass and that really helped us tonight. We had to cut down on our fouls. I thought we fouled a lot in the first half, so we had to stop fouling and play better defense.”
The game plan for the Lancers was to keep the Cougars out of the paint in the third match up of the season between the two teams. The script was actually flipped as Kolbe allowed just two fourth quarter points, a field goal with 2:26 remaining for the final points of the game.
“They won the rebound battle,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kriftcher said after his team fell to 20-3. “We said defense was obviously going to play a factor. Whoever won the rebound battle, we were convinced they
were going to win this game. They really went at it.”
With his team leading by two points at the half, George scored the first five points of the third quarter, which started an 11-1 run to give the Cougars a 41-29 advantage with 5:42 left in the third.
The Lancers scored just 17 points in the second half, connecting on just eight field goals.
“We talked about trying to use our length a little bit more and reaching,” Pfohl said. “We reached a lot in the first half I thought. The second half we stopped reaching and contained ourselves.”
The first half had it all. Whether it was thrilling baskets, lock-tight defense, or sloppy play, the combination led to a 30-28 Kolbe Cathedral lead at the half.
The Cougars, ranked seventh in the GameTimeCT Top 10 poll, took the lead at the half after a 10-0 run was capped by a buzzer-beating basket by Exauce Mpoyi. Mpoyi scored the last four points of the half after 3-pointers by Marquise Owens and Genesis Rodriguez got the Cougars rolling.
The Lancers, ranked third in the state and having already defeated Kolbe twice during the regular season, led for most of the first half as a bucket by Finn Miller had Notre Dame on top 14-9 late in the first quarter.
A 3-pointer by Miller and a bucket by C.J. Fay twice extended the Notre Dame lead to six points.
When Miller and Nate Charlot drained consecutive buckets, Notre Dame, now 6-4 in SWC finals play, had a 28-20 lead with less than three minutes remaining in the half.
Marquise Owens had 14 points in the win for Kolbe. Miller led the Lancers with 13 points, while Charlot had 12 points in the loss.
Player of the Game
Najimi George: The Kolbe forward was dominant on the boards, particularly in the second half when the Cougars held Notre Dame to just 17 points on eight field goals.
Quotable
“It feels great. It feels amazing. It was very tough. Playing a team three times in the season is tough to beat them.” — Kolbe Cathedra’s Najimi George on topping Notre DameFairfield for the team’s 11th straight win.