New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Cromwell makes it back-to-back Shoreline crowns
MADISON — Victor Payne was simply not going to be denied Friday night.
A second consecutive Shoreline Conference tournament championship was on the line. It was within reach despite a dismal first half for the Cromwell boys basketball team.
Payne is the Shoreline Conference Player of the Year for a reason. Portland could not stop him in the second half.
The junior scored 33 of his 35 points in the second half as No. 2 seed Cromwell defeated top seed Portland 58-43 at Polson Middle School.
“I didn’t want to lose. This is what we wanted from the beginning of the season,” Payne said.
It was the seventh Shoreline title for Cromwell coach John Pinone and his third at Polson. He is 7-2 in league tournament finals.
“They all mean everything when you can win a championship,” Pinone said. “I think a lot of people thought after we graduated who we graduated last year that we would be good, but not championship-level good — yours truly included. But we have come a long ways when we started practicing in December.”
The Panthers (21-2) turned up the defensive pressure on the Highlanders (17-6), who were paying in their first Shoreline final. They held Portland to just 10 points over nearly a 15 minute stretch.
“I’ve played and coached against fantastic players and great players make great plays and great shots,” Portland coach David Bradbury said. “What you can do is do your best to contain him and we failed at that.”
Payne got to the basket with ease and even scored a handful of times while getting fouled. He scored the last 13 points of the third quarter.
He was even more dominant in the fourth quarter, scoring 20 points. He scored 22 of his team’s 24 points during a stretch in the second half. He also went 14 of 14 from the freethrow line.
“He totally took the game over,” Pinone said.
Cromwell struggled to score the entire first half, partially because of Portland’s defense and also because the Panthers missed open perimeter looks.
Then the Panthers lost two players in the span of 3 minutes. Payne picked up his second foul with 1:12 left in the first quarter. He went to the bench for the remainder of the first half.
“I was thinking: As soon as I go back in, I’m going to take over,” Payne said. “That’s what I’m supposed to do. Player of the Year.”
Then senior guard Jack Corona picked up two technical fouls and an automatic ejection with 6:50 left in the second quarter. Harrison Collins made three of the four free throws awarded for the double technical foul to put Portland ahead 20-6.
But Portland was not able to extend the lead with Payne on the bench. Instead, Cromwell stiffened on defense, allowing Portland just two more points the remainder of the half. The Panthers picked it up a little on offense and trailed 22-13 at halftime.
“We didn’t make any shots in the first half,” Pinone said. “We were very fortunate to be down nine at half.”
Cromwell only allowed eight points in the third quarter. Payne made a pair of free throws with just under a minute remaining in the third quarter to give Cromwell its first lead 28-27.
“To be honest with you, I thought championship experience rose to the forefront. I thought they did a great job of making adjustments down the stretch in the second, third and fourth quarters,” Bradbury said. “I didn’t think we were able to make shots, I didn’t think we were able to execute offensively and we got completely away from what we do defensively.”
It was almost a carbon copy of last year’s final. Cromwell trailed Morgan 20-9 early in the second quarter, then held Morgan to just six points over a 14minute stretch.
“Slowly, grind it out, grind it out, my type of game, grind it out defensively,” Pinone said.
Player of the game
Victor Payne, Cromwell: Scored 33 of his 35 points in the second half with dunks, 3-pointers, conventional 3-point plays, 14 of 14 from the free-throw line, you name it. An impressive performance.
Quotable
“It happened last year too, Morgan was up on us, we went into the locker room (at halftime) stayed focused, didn’t worry, kept our heads up. — Cromwell’s Victor Payne