Simsbury girls, Windsor boys capture state titles
Simsbury 55, Holy Cross 40: After an emotional season in which Sam Zullo lost his mom to cancer, his Simsbury girls basketball team – and its two seniors – came through on the biggest stage. The secondseeded Trojans, in their first state championship game, defeated No. 1 Holy Cross 55-40 in the Class L final Saturday night at Mohegan Sun Arena.
“He’s been through so much this year,” said Simsbury senior Amanda Gallagher, who led the team in scoring with 21 points. “It means so much for me and the whole team to be able to win this for him.”
Senior Olivia Jarvis, who scored 19 points, including her 1,000th career point in the first half, and had eight rebounds, was named the game’s Most Outstanding Player.
When she and Gallagher came off the court, they hugged their coach.
“Oh my gosh, it feels amazing,” Jarvis said. “This court, this atmosphere is incredible. This is where Taylor Swift performs, the WNBA – we played on a professional court and to win on it in my last ever basketball game is amazing.
“This has been (Zullo)’s dream since he was four years old, he told us. And to get this after everything he’s been through is amazing.”
Earlier in the day, Sam Zullo’s father Jim coached the Northville (N.Y.) girls team to a Class D semifinal win, 42-34 over Elba. On Sunday, Northville lost to Hammond 54-34 in the championship game. Jim, 80, a long-time retired coach who is in the state’s basketball hall of fame, took a job coaching the girls team at the urging of his wife Linda, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer last spring. Linda made Sam promise he would never miss a game and so Sam drove back and forth to upstate New York to see her in January. Linda died Jan. 14.
“My mom was the best human I ever met,” Sam said. “She was always there for others.
“It’s sad she can’t be here. I don’t know everything I believe in but I believe that this was all meant to be, this year, the way that it happened. I feel very, very fortunate.”
A year ago, the Windsor boys basketball team was home, starting to think about spring sports. Junior
Windsor 59, West Haven 57:
Anthony Williams was rehabilitating his broken leg, injured at a pep rally, dreaming, maybe, about next season and what his team could do.
Saturday night at Mohegan Sun Arena, Windsor achieved its goal. The second-seeded Warriors (25-3) outlasted No. 12 West Haven 59-57 to win the Division II title, coach Ken Smith’s first championship since 2014 and Windsor’s fifth overall.
“Staying here all four years, this being our last game with Coach Smith at Windsor, we knew we wanted to win this bad,” Windsor senior Kaiden James said. “We didn’t want to go home not being able to win a championship.”
Windsor senior Gyan Davis had 14 points and 16 rebounds while Williams, who returned to play this season, had 17 rebounds and 13 points. Freshman Missoni Brown, who was named the Most Outstanding Player, had 14 points and eight rebounds and some clutch shots down the stretch, including four points in overtime.
“That was probably the hardest we played all year and it did take a lot of energy,” Williams said. “Those West Haven kids are really tough kids.”
Williams made one of two free throws with 40.9 seconds left in regulation to tie the score at 48 and the game went into overtime.
Windsor went on a 7-0 run to start overtime and took a 55-48 lead on two Brown free throws with 2:33 left.
But West Haven came back. With 30 seconds left, Aaron Johnson hit a shot to cut Windsor’s lead to 59-57. The Warriors hung on to win.