State Finals Set in Connecticut

New England Recruiting Report | Wednesday, March 13th, 2013

Hillhouse and Fairfield Prep will write the fourth chapter of their incredible rivalry in the CIAC Class LL championship game this weekend at Mohegan Sun Arena.

The consensus top two teams in the state split their regular season meetings before Hillhouse scored an overtime win in the championship of the SCC tournament.  

Hillhouse has yet to be tested in the state tournament, dominating Manchester, Bridgeport Central, and Xavier en route to the final.  Fairfield Prep’s path has been more challenging with a hard fought 78-75 win over East Hartford in the semifinals, following easy wins over Newington and a talented Ridgefield team.  

Hillhouse is led by a deep and talented backcourt of Bobby Bynum, Andre Anderson, Shane Christie, and Raiquan Clark while Chase Daniels and Quaran Sturges lead the team up front.  Fairfield Prep in anchored by Paschal Chukwu while senior forward Tim Butala and the underclassmen backcourt of Ryan Murphy and Thomas Nolan are also major contributors.  

The Class L finals are set following Wednesday night’s semifinal action.  Trinity Catholic defeated Wilbur Cross in one semifinal while Woodstock Academy knocked off Bunnell in the other, setting up a championship game between the top two seeds.  

The duo of Schadrac Casimir and Brandon Wheeler proved to be too much for Wilbur Cross to overcome as Trinity Catholic ran away with a lopsided 87-51 win.  The other semifinal was much closer as Woodstock needed overtime to outlast Bunnell.  WA senior forward Ian Converse scored a game high 28 points while Sullivan Gardner added 19 more inside.  Bunnell was led by Matt Nolting and Issac Vann with 21 and 19 respectively.  

In Class M 5th seeded Valley Regional will put their 21 game winning streak on the line against 23rd seeded Weston at 8pm on Friday night.  Valley has relied on their senior core to earn wins over Ellis Tech, Cromwell, Ledyard, and Bloomfield while Weston has taken down University, Tolland, Kaynor Tech, and Enfield en route to the final.  

The emergence of Weaver’s freshman sensation Keandre Fair has been the story in Class S where his heroics now have his squad in the state final with a 12-12 overall record.  He had 44 in an opening round win over Gilbert and had 29 when going head to head with Kahlil Dukes in an upset of top seeded Capital Prep.  The last remaining obstacle in Weaver Cinderella run is 3rd seeded Granby, who knocked off Kolbe Cathedral on Wednesday night, in a 9:30am final to start the day on Saturday at Mohegan Sun.  

Weekend Schedule @ Mohegan Sun Arena

Fri – 6:00pm Girls Class M – Cromwell vs. Notre Dame Fairfield
Fri – 8:00pm Boys Class M – Valley Regional vs. Weston
Sat – 9:30am Boys Class S – Weaver vs. Granby
Sat – 11:30am Girls Class S – Capital Prep vs. Thomaston
Sat – 1:30pm Girls Class L – Farmington vs. Bacon
Sat – 4:15pm Boys Class L – Woodstock Academy vs. Trinity Catholic
Sat – 6:15pm Girls Class LL - Laurelton Hall vs. Mercy
Sat – 8:15pm Boys Class LL – Fairfield Prep vs. Hillhouse