The New Canaan Basketball Association fifth grade Red and Black boys are sending the rest of the Fairfield County Basketball League a loud-and-clear message this season:
You don’t want to play us.
The Black team (13-1, 7-0 FCBL) has dominated throughout the season, as head coach Fred Crawford‘s crew has outscored opponents 673-448 so far. Meanwhile, Felix Belgrove‘s Red team (4-6, 3-5 FCBL) has turned its season around after an 0-5 start, winning four of its last five games, including a dramatic overtime victory over Weston this past Sunday.
NC Red 5 – 33, Redding-Easton – 29
Ryan Connelly scored 9 points and Connor O’Donnell added 8 as the Red 5’s took down heavily favored Redding-Easton Friday night at Saxe Middle School.
New Canaan’s Will Larson fights for a rebound against Redding-Easton. Credit: Terry Dinan
New Canaan trailed for virtually the entire contest after Redding-Easton jumped out to a 7-4 lead after one quarter. New Canaan hung in the game in the second, as baskets from Matt Salmini, Bear Morris and Ryan Tonghini and tight defense from Will Larson kept the Red 5’s on pace with Redding-Easton, trailing 17-14 at the half.
Despite falling behind 25-20 after three quarters, New Canaan began to mount its comeback. A three-pointer from Travis Sturke with 5:20 left capped off a 6-0 New Canaan run and gave the Red 5’s their first lead of the game. After Redding-Easton took back the lead, Colin Tiscornia got it right back for New Canaan with a huge basket to make it 28-27 with 3:09 left. It was a lead New Canaan would not relinquish, handing a distraught Redding-Easton team their second loss of the season, dropping them to 10-2 overall.
NC Red 5 – 46, Weston – 43 (OT)
In one of the most exciting games of the season, the Red 5’s overcame a 10-0 Weston run at the end of regulation that forced overtime, eventually prevailing in the extra session to win their third consecutive contest.
New Canaan seemed to be on its way to a rout as Jerome Roscoe opened the fourth quarter with a steal and layup to give the Red 5’s a 33-25 lead, their biggest of the game. Tremendous rebounding from Cooper Dinan and Chris McLallen helped New Canaan extend to a seemingly safe 37-27 lead with just over 4 minutes left.
Weston had other ideas, reeling off 10 straight points and getting a chance to end the game in regulation with a foul shot and no time left. The front end of a one-and-one conversion failed, and the two teams went into overtime knotted up at 37.
The NC Red 5’s enjoy a timeout. Credit: Terry Dinan
After Weston pulled ahead 40-37, New Canaan chipped away. A Connelly free throw and a McLallen layup tied it at 40 with 2:19 left. Salmini then gave New Canaan a 42-40 lead, extended to 44-40 after a hoop from Morris. Weston answered with a three-pointer to make it 44-43 with 1:50 left, but Morris put the game away with a layup just a minute later to give New Canaan a thrilling 46-43 win.
O’Donnell led the Red 5’s with 15 points with Connelly finishing with 7. Morris had 6 points, including 4 big ones in OT.
NC Black 5 – 51, St. Theresa’s of Trumbull – 31
Despite the absence of center Mack Seelert who was sidelined with an arm injury, New Canaan jumped out to an early 6 point lead and never looked back. Blake Wilson led all scorers with 18 points, while Ethan Crawford and Danny Rogers chipped in with 15 and 7, respectively.
Blake Wilson drives to the hoop. Credit: Mike Wilson
The harassing backcourt defense of Wilson, Crawford and Brendan Hagan proved too much for St. Theresa’s to handle while the boards were dominated by the strong play of Ty Groff, Giovanni Cascione, Trey Hartnett and Andrew Rittenberry. St. Theresa’s took full advantage of New Canaan’s physical play by shooting 90% from the charity stripe and actually pulled the game to within 6 points in the second half before Hunter Nelson drained a 3 and extended the Black 5’s lead for good.