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Bassick
beats Stamford
to
win FCIAC
Title
(article
and pictures courtesy of Connecticut
Post)
The first trip to Webster Bank
Arena this season by the Bassick boys
basketball team wasn't exactly one it remembers
all too fondly.
Double those sentiments for senior Marlon
Bennett, who air-balled the would-be game-winner
in an overtime loss to rival St.
Joseph in the Bridgeport
Basketball Classic last month. Since missing
that shot, Bennett had practiced, practiced and
practiced a little more on his
3-point touch.
Tuesday night against Stamford in the
FCIAC championship game, the Lions and Bennett
got a chance
for redemption.
They
each made the most
of it.
Bennett came off the bench to score a team-high
12 points, including eight straight during a
game-changing 14-2 run late in the second
quarter, as the No. 4 Lions topped the No. 7
Black Knights 57-51 for their second FCIAC title
in school history.
"I didn't think I'd get another chance," said
Bennett, who was named MVP of the game. "I came
out and played basketball. I was just
feeling it."
Bassick also got 12  points
from another bench player, Demetrius Thomas, to
claim its first league title since 2007. Thomas
and Bennett picked up the slack for the Lions'
two leading scorers -- Kyle Geer and Jamill
Powell -- who combined for just three
field goals.
Stamford senior
Luis Bridtter led all scorers with 18 points
before fouling out with two minutes left in
the fourth.
"We made a number of little mental mistakes. It
was a two-point game. It could have gone either
way," Stamford
coach Jim Moriarty said. "It's the
first game we lost by more than one point
since Christmas."
More specifically, four of Stamford's five
post-Christmas losses were by one point. The
other was a 53-42 defeat at the hands of Bassick
on Jan. 4.
The Black Knights (14-7) started quick, leading
by as many as eight in the first quarter.
Stamford
shooters Shawn Padilla and Anthony Davis found
their touch early from beyond the arc, while
Bridtter was deadly from the top of the key.
However, after Davis sank a
3-pointer with 2:56 left in the first quarter,
the Black Knights missed their final 12 attempts
from
3-point range.
Those misses, coupled with Bassick's increased
defensive pressure, which forced 20 turnovers,
made life difficult for Stamford.
"Their pressure hurt us, they're big, they're
long. We turned the ball over way too much,"
Moriarty said. "What they did in the first half
was get us out of our tempo. We played quicker
than we wanted to play."
The Lions used that up-and-down tempo in their
second-quarter run, taking their first lead,
19-18, on a Thomas lay-in with 3:42 left in the
half. Once ahead, Bassick wouldn't relinquish
its advantage.
Key in that run was Bennett, who poured in eight
straight Lions' points, including two
3-pointers.
"We were hungry, man," Thomas said. "Once
(Bennett) got that little spurt, it gave us a
boost when he knocked down
the shots."
Bassick led by as many as eight late in the
third, punctuated by a breakaway tomahawk dunk
by Thomas.
Down 42-34, Stamford closed
the third on a 6-0 run, capped by Padilla's
putback as time expired. The Black Knights
pulled as close as they'd come on the first
possession of the fourth when Briddter made
1-of-2 foul shots, making it
42-41.
From there the teams traded a few baskets -- and
a lot of free throws -- with the Lions doing
just enough to hold the Knights at bay. Bassick
didn't make a ton of shots, but Geer was able to
get to the line consistently, with Terqwan
Perkins (six points, 13 rebounds) doing enough
on the offensive glass.
Down
55-51 with less than 30 seconds left, Stamford got
three good shots, but after Padilla missed a
3-pointer, Bennett emerged with the rebound to
seal the
Bassick victory.
"We had seven guys of equal ability," Bassick
assistant coach Bernie Lofton said.
"Any night could be any of the seven stepping
up. ... They deserved to win this. They
dedicated themselves since last year's loss to
Central in the FCIAC playoffs, they were
embarrassed and came back hard. They worked all
summer, they worked all fall and got what they
deserved. I'm proud
of them."
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