NFA boys learning that perfection is difficult ... and an accomplishment
Mohegan — Norwich Free Academy was hell-bent on returning to Mohegan Sun Arena to this season to win the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I boys' basketball tournament title after losing in last year's final.
Some of the Wildcats were confident enough to believe they'd go unbeaten before the season began.
NFA learned just how hard winning a title and perfection are on Tuesday night — and what an accomplishment it is to do both.
The Wildcats trailed Ledyard for most of the first three quarters before they rallied for a 54-43 win.
“I like having the target on our back,” said NFA senior Xavier Marquez. “It gives us a challenge we have to live up to. Everybody knows the name ‘NFA' now.”
Tournament MVP Mason Jackson scored 14 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter for NFA (23-0), ranked fourth in the GameTimeCT/ New Haven Register Top 10 poll. NFA and Prince Tech are the state's only unbeaten teams.
“I don't take undefeated for granted,” NFA head coach Chris Guisti said after the top-seeded Wildcats held off the upset-minded Colonels before a loud crowd of 3,092. “I knew that tonight was going to be the hardest of the 23 (games), and not to say that I didn't think that Waterford wasn't going to give us a tough game (in the
ECC semis), or that Xavier wasn't going to give us a tough game (in their final regular-season game).
"The championship game, to win it and close it out ... should be the hardest.”
The Wildcats had the memory of last year's finals loss to fuel them to win No. 23. It was also motivation to go unbeaten this season, something that Jackson and Marquez both told Guisti they'd do back in October.
“We had a real bad taste in our mouth having lost on this court last
“I don't take undefeated for granted. I knew (Tuesday night) was gonig to be the hardest of the 23 (games) ... The championship game, to win it and close it out, should be the hardest.” NFA COACH CHRIS GUISTI
year,” Marquez said.“(This season) was about unfinished business. We had our goal. Even when I was in football season, I was focused on football, but I knew in basketball that we had something coming that was going to be spectacular. We've been doing everything we could to get here again.”
This week has been a great reminder that, with a few exceptions, nothing is for certain in a high school tournament game, no matter a team's record, seeding or prestige.
Sacred Heart played Holy Cross in a Naugatuck Valley League semifinal on Monday night.
The unbeaten and third-ranked Hearts had won 125-straight league games dating back to 2014, in addition to four straight CIAC titles (2014-17).
Holy Cross pulled off the upset, 66-58.
That same night, the third-seeded New London girls' basketball team hosted a CIAC Class LL first-round game against No. 30 Hall, losers of 10 of its previous 12 games. The Whalers were ranked eighth in the state.
Hall pulled off one of the biggest first-round stunners in tournament history, 45-29, becoming just the fourth seven-win team to win a state tourney game.
A little over an hour before NFA played Ledyard, Northwest Catholic knocked off Windsor, the state's unanimous No. 1 boys' team, 72-62, in the Central Connecticut Conference semifinals. It was Windsor's first in-state loss.
One can imagine what was going through the Wildcats' heads when Ledyard's size and full-court press had them on their heels. The Colonels led by as much as 24-16 with 4 minutes, 12 seconds left in the first have.
“We like to put it on teams early,” Marquez said. “You could see that the lights (Mohegan Sun's atmosphere) affected us a little bit.”
NFA opened the fourth quarter with a 10-0 run to go ahead for good, 42-35, with 3:46 remaining.
“Jared (Martin), Blaise (Beaucejour), Nolan (Molkenthin), X (Marquez), we have a lot of pieces,” Jackson said. “I think we can win the (Division I) state championship, too.” n.griffen@theday.com