CIAC boys basketball, Seymour and Xavier Come back from double-digit deficits to advance to quarterfinals
We’ve been through two rounds of the CIAC boys basketball Tournament. Here’s what caught our eye:
Comeback central
Joey Carafello hit a free throw with no time left in overtime to help No. 10 seed Seymour complete a comeback from No. 7 Brookfield, 71-70, in the second round of Division IV.
The Wildcats trailed by 21 points (48-27) at halftime. The Wildcats outscored the Bobcats 20-7 in the third quarter.
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Kayden Drezek finished with 26 points and 13 rebounds for Seymour, which will face No. 18 Somers in the quarterfinals on Monday.
Xavier outscored Southington 19-5 after the first quarter at home. But the Falcons roared back to defeat the Blue Knights 56-47 in a Division II second-round game.
Anthony Parker scored a game-high 29 points for Xavier, which will play at Kennedy in Waterbury in Monday’s quarterfinals.
Normalcy returns in Division III
After an opening round that featured five seed upsets in as many games, things returned to normal in Division III.
All top seeds were seeded in the opening round – only 21 teams qualified for that division. All eight won – six of them by double digits. Only No. 8 seed Newington, a 48-57 winner over No. 9 Lewis Mills, and No. 5 Fitch held off No. 21 St. Paul, the lowest seed in the field, played close games.
That leads to some great quarterfinal matches on Friday. No. 4 New London will look to defeat ECC rival, No. 5 Seed Fitch for the third time. The law needs a victory to reach 20 but will have to do so against Platt, the school’s all-time leading scorer behind Anthony Niemani, in his first quarterfinal appearance in a quarter-century.
Also, No. 2 WCA hosts No. 7 Killingly, the NVL champion, behind Yanni Barbeau, who collected 21 to go along with his 17 points in the second round. Newington, the No. 8 seed, will have its hands full with top-seeded Bloomfield.
Conference breakdown
How did conferences fare in the second round? The Coastal Conference went 3-0 and ECC went 8-2 in Divisions II through V.
Other league records are as follows: NVL (4-2), FCIAC (3-2), SCC (2-2), Berkshire League (2-2), CRAL (2-3), NCCC (3-4). and CTC (1-3).
