The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Raiders pull away, roll past Kennedy
TORRINGTON — Torrington’s boys basketball team pulled away to a 98-60 romp over Kennedy after a good first quarter by the Eagles Thursday night at Torrington High School.
Buoyed by four of their seven three’s for the night, Kennedy (7-12; 7-11 NVL) stayed even with the Red Raiders (15-4; 14-3 NVL) for a 19-19 first quarter.
Then the three’s crashed off Kennedy’s rim while Torrington raced to a 24-10 second quarter that singed the Eagles’ feathers for the night.
Tyreek Davis turned in nine of his game-high 26 points; Joel Villanueva was right beside him for nine of his 24 (including four three’s and 6-for-6 from the foul line).
Torrington sparkplug Dontae Thomas kept the Raiders’ feet on the gas with 12 of his 20 points in a second half whose only question mark was whether the fourth-quarter Torrington bench could ring up a 100-point team final.
Jay Turner (team-high 17 points); Jaquane Jones (14); and Matt Torres (11) were Kennedy’s double-figure leaders, but the Eagles needed a three-point record to stay with a Torrington team that ended up ruling the boards and finding its men under the basket with an often-brilliant passing game.
“We’re starting to look postseason ready,” said Torrington coach Eric Gamari, whose Raiders have now throttled two sometimes-scary Waterbury teams (Holy Cross was the other) by almost 40 points apiece.
“Whenever you play a Waterbury team, you can’t take anything for granted,” said Davis.
“(This year), a Waterbury team or a suburban team; it doesn’t
make any difference. A win’s a win,” said Villanueva.
The Eagles go for state tournament qualification with a non-conference game against Kaynor Tech Saturday afternoon.
Torrington faces the king of the Waterbury teams, Sacred Heart, Tuesday in Waterbury.
“We’ll just go down there and have fun,” said Gamari. “If we play well, great.”