Davis gets Red Raiders back on track with 31

TORRINGTON — Tyreek Davis ran off 31 points in a 90-54 Torrington boys basketball stampede over Watertown Wednesday night at Torrington High School.

Nobody expected the mismatch between the Red Raiders (7-3, 6-2 NVL) and Indians (1-8, 1-7 NVL) to end any differently.

Nevertheless, the Raiders got back to their A Game after a semi-sluggish win at non-conference Litchfield Monday and a so-so first half Wednesday, ending in a 43-28 Torrington lead, but no thrills.

The second half returned jet fuel to the Raiders mix.

“In the first half, we didn’t talk,” said Davis, a senior guard who poured in 17 points in spite of the relative silence.

“We picked it up,” Raiders coach Eric Gamari By Peter Wallace. “It’s mid-term week and that always throws you out of sync.”

Playing their second game without Dontae Thomas, Torrington’s energizer guard who turned an ankle last Friday, the defense revved up the second-half Raiders engine, just as it did in Litchfield.

Sophomore Matt Rylander, becoming a Raiders mainstay in the absence of two key Torrington players, made at least 10 steals out front in a shifting Torrington defense.

“Playing consistently gets my energy going,” Rylander said. “I just want to get the ball so we can get back on offense. We can outrun most teams, so steals let us get that going.”

“(Rylander’s) stepped up on offense and defense,” said Davis, turning ball-hawk himself in the second half, along with the remainder of his swarming, shotblocking team.

Three first-quarter steals by Rylander and blocked shots by Joel Villanueva and T.J. Calabrese helped, but Torrington led just 15-10 midway through the period, hovering over a 10-point lead until late in the second, when Villanueva’s steal turned Davis loose for one fast break and Rylander converted another one for the half ’s final score.

In the locker room, Thomas, out of uniform until Friday at Woodland, “pumped us up,” said Rylander.

With that and a speech by former coach Mike Hall, the Torrington train left the station, building to a 68-41 lead in a blur of steals, blocked shots and fast breaks by the end of the third quarter.

Davis, with eight field goals and just one foul shot in the first

half, went to the foul line for 8-of-10 in the second. Calabrese had six of his 12 points in the third period; Villanueva, five of his 12. Adam Vanotti came on for all of his 10 points in the fourth.

“We got (Davis) going tonight,” said Gamari.

“It’s fun to run,” grinned Davis.

Camden Garcia and Nasim Pocesta were high scorers for Watertown with 10 points apiece.