Timely takeover
Williams scores 27, engineers late rally that pushes Simsbury to win
EAST HARTFORD — There wasn’t much breathing for either side Thursday night as East Hartford, the sixth seed in the CCC tournament, and Simsbury, the 11th, exchanged leads for the first three quarters of play.
The Hornets led by two points after the first quarter of the first-round game. Simsbury held a two-point advantage at halftime, then freshman Gavin Griffiths drilled a corner 3 as time expired at the end of the third to draw the Trojans into a tie after eight lead changes in the quarter.
Finally, Simsbury senior Jalen Williams — the Trojans’ offensive catalyst all season — took over. He scored 10 points in the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, leading a 15-5 Simsbury run that gave it the lead and carried it to a 63-52 victory.
The Trojans (15-6) will play third-seeded Glastonbury (18-3) on Saturday in the quarterfinals.
“I started to heat up because they were playing aggressive and I knew drives to the basket would open up,” said Williams, who finished with a game-high 27 points.
“I decided to take charge and put the team on my back.”
Simsbury outscored East Hartford 27-16 in the fourth quarter. Thirteen of those points came at the free-throw line as the Trojans missed just one foul shot in the final eight minutes of play.
“We’ve all been in those games where you’re right there on the line to put it away and it doesn’t happen,” Simsbury coach Greg Stillman said. “Today the guys were great. We’ve been working on free throws every day for three months. I guess it paid off today.”
Williams was the high scorer, though two others also had hot hands at crunch time. Senior Jackson Butler and sophomore Henry White combined for 15 points in the fourth quarter as they finished with 11 and 10, respectively, for the game.
Jaylin Palmers (16 points) and JJ Jernigan (14) led the Hornets (14-7).
Despite being the lower seed, Simsbury didn’t feel like an underdog. The Trojans beat East Hartford earlier this month, and the teams finished the regular season with identical records. But with the depth of the CCC, talented teams find themselves seeded all over the board, as was the case with Simsbury.
“We thought no matter what, if we’re an 11 seed, we’re going to come out,” Williams said. “No matter who we’re playing, we were going to win.”