Raiders overcome layoff to ground Falcons

TORRINGTON — Rust lay all over the floor at the end of No. 6 Torrington’s 56-51 Division III secondround boys basketball win over No. 11 St. Paul Friday night at Torrington High School.

“We just didn’t make shots,” said St. Paul coach Steve Phelps, whose Falcons had the benefit of a first-round game against Joel Barlow before the snow delayed the second round by two days.

Torrington, with a firstround bye, sat idle for two weeks after bowing out in the NVL Tournament first round.

That and a different look from the Falcons made a far different game than the teams’ first match-up two days after Christmas.

“We tried to play a zone in that game and they just sliced us up (81-59),” Phelps said.

Friday, the Red Raiders saw man-to-man defense and it made a world of difference.

“We didn’t give up a lot of transition points, and we limited them in what they’re comfortable with,” Phelps said. “I’m proud of our defense.”

Torrington coach Eric Gamari was proud of hanging in on a cold-shooting night in which even the layups came hard.

“We were rusty in the first half, (but) the second half was better,” Gamari said. “We started playing as a team, and we ran some offense with picks that worked.”

The Falcons took the lead in the second quarter behind Tyler Arbuckle (17 points) and Mike Palmieri (10 points), and led, 24-23, at halftime.

Joel Villanueva (15 points) nailed his third three-pointer of the game midway through the third period, giving the Raiders a

37-33 lead that carried them through the final period, largely on the strength of 11-for-14 foul shooting along with nine of Dontae Thomas’s 12 points for the game.

The Raiders play No. 3 Prince Tech in a quarterfinal game in Hartford tonight at 7 p.m.