The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
East Catholic finishes as unanimous No. 1
East Catholic finished right where it started.
The Eagles were the No. 1 team in the GameTimeCT boys basketball Top 10 poll all season long. But only in this final poll did East Catholic do so unanimously. The Eagles earned all 19 firstplace votes from the state media.
But it almost wasn’t the case for the Eagles. They had to come back from 18 points down in the second quarter to defeat Northwest Catholic 49-47 in the CIAC Division I state championship game held at the Mohegan Sun Arena. It was the third straight Division I title for East Catholic, which went undefeated against state competition.
East Catholic last finished No. 1 in 2020. The Eagles
came into the CIAC state tournament No. 1, but the tournament only lasted one day before being canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Eagles finished No. 1 in 2019 after winning Division I.
Northwest Catholic moved up three spots to finish second, followed by St.
Bernard, which won the Division II state championship over Staples. The Saints won their first state championship since 1982 and also added the ECC Division I title to its resume.
Notre Dame-West Haven, which lost to Northwest Catholic in the Division I semifinals, finishes fourth, followed by Waterbury Career Academy, which won the Division III championship over Bloomfield. WCA, in its eighth season at the varsity level, also won its first NVL championship.
Notre Dame-Fairfield, a Division I quarterfinalist, is sixth and Bloomfield dropped two spots to seventh. Division IV state champion Cromwell is eighth, making its first appearance in the top 10 after receiving votes most of the season.
Ridgefield, which reached the Division I semifinals, finishes ninth and Staples, which reached a state championship game for the first time since 1937, makes its first appearance in the 10th spot.