Banner night for Bolton's Buchanan

Jan. 31—BOLTON — Throughout his career with the Bolton High boys basketball team, Trevor Buchanan's eye has always been drawn to the 1,000-point scorers banner in the gym.

"During practice and games, I look up at all the people who got it," the senior said. "I always thought through my four years of high school that I wanted to be up there."

The 6-foot-2 shooting guard doesn't need to imagine it anymore.

Buchanan scored a team-high 25 points to reach the 1,000-point milestone, but the Bulldogs fell to Windham Tech 68-64 in a non-league game Monday night.

"It would've been a lot better if we won," Buchanan said. "But I'm just happy I got that moment."

Buchanan is the seventh boys player in school history to reach the mark and first since the program's all-time leading scorer and current Eastern Connecticut State standout Aidan O'Brien did in the 2019-20 season.

He also contributed four rebounds, four assists, a steal, and a block Monday night.

Buchanan is averaging 21.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.9 steals this season.

"He's just an incredible scorer," Bolton coach Jordan Richard said. "As a freshman, he was kind of young and immature. But the amount he's grown as a scorer over the last four years has been incredible. He's a good leader, he can obviously put the ball in the hoop with the best of them. We rely on him."

Buchanan entered the game with 991 career points. He had two in the first quarter as the Bulldogs (6-8) fell behind 14-9.

"First quarter, I was struggling," Buchanan said. "I missed a couple of layups, some free throws. I just kept thinking positive. I just knew I'd get it eventually during the game."

The game did start coming to the senior as he made four free throws then a jumper that made it 25-19 with 2:28 left in the half to bring his total to 999.

Buchanan was fouled with 1:13 left in the half. His first free throw rimmed out, but he buried the second much to the delight of the Bolton High crowd.

"A lot of pressure left my body," Buchanan said of the make.

The game was paused as Buchanan was presented the ball while he received a tremendous ovation. He then went and hugged his parents in the stands before hugging members of the Bolton student section.

"It was crazy," Buchanan said. "I mean goose bumps all over my body. It was just, if I could keep reliving that moment, I would keep doing it."

Buchanan's jump shot and milestone free throw make were part of a 10-2 Bolton run to close the half. The game was tied 27-27 at the break.

The Bulldogs carried the momentum back onto the court when play resumed, outscoring the Mighty Tigers (10-3) 19-6 over the first 6:45 of the third quarter to take a 46-33 lead. Senior Colby Marsh scored seven on the run.

"Once (Buchanan) hit (1,000 points), I think we all kind of exhaled," Richard said. "We were looking forward to it because now we can just kind of play, and he can play. I told him he was going to erupt once he gets it and it's in the past. Hopefully he's healthy so he can do that."

Richard is referencing the fact that Buchanan hurt his left wrist/hand during the third quarter. Buchanan left the game only briefly and played through pain the rest of the way.

"I'm going to the trainer after this," he said. "I was just trying to push through it."

Bolton held a seven-point lead entering the fourth quarter and led 61-54 with 2:15 to play. But back-to-back threes from Brody Belanger trimmed the score to 61-60 with 1:47 left.

Belanger then tipped a pass and following a scramble, freshman Colby Dunnack ended up with it and hit a floater to give the visitors a 62-61 lead with 1:27 to play, their first advantage since it was 27-25.

With Bolton down 64-62, Ryan Orzolek made a shot as he was falling to the ground to tie it with 49.4 seconds to play. Marsh grabbed a defensive rebound on the other end, but Fischer Jones intercepted a pass and made a breakaway layup to put the visitors ahead 66-64 with 23.0 seconds left.

Belanger grabbed a Bolton miss and was fouled with 10.6 seconds remaining. The senior missed front end of one one-and-one but teammate Trey Lindsey grabbed the offensive rebound.

Dezmen Gaston made two free throws with 6.7 seconds left to ice the game.

"We'll grow from this. That's the big thing," Richard said. "You've got to take it one game at a time. It's high school. We've won some big games that I felt like we had no business being in. Earlier this year, we stole one from SMSA here. You're always going to have nights like that, then you're going to have nights like this where it's a little punch in the gut because you feel like you should've had it. It happens."

Marsh finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks while Orzolek had six points, 13 rebounds, three assists and a block. Belanger paced Windham Tech with 26 points, including making eight three-pointers.

Buchanan hopes to continue his career in college. He said he's currently looking at a few schools.

But before he gets there, Buchanan hopes to lead Bolton to its first Division V state tournament berth since 2019.

"Last year, we only had six wins. We're already tied with where we were last year," Buchanan said. "Throughout my four years, this is like the best we've done. I think if we forget about this game, put it behind us, keep playing, I think we should rip off a couple of wins."

The Bulldogs get their first chance tonight when they host Ellington.

WINDHAM TECH (68): Dezmen Gaston 4 2-3 12; Brady Marsh 1 0-0 2; Trey Lindsey 1 3-6 5; Brody Belanger 8 2-5 26; Fischer Jones 4 2-2 11; Colby Dunnack 4 2-4 12. Totals: 22 11-20 68.

Three-point goals: Belanger (8), Gaston (2), Dunnack (2), Jones.

BOLTON (64): Gavin LaPlante 1 0-0 2; Mason Fox 0 0-0 0; Trevor Buchanan 7 10-17 25; Ryan Orzolek 3 0-0 6; Colby Marsh 7 4-6 18; Josh Wagner 4 0-0 8; Andrew Baranov 1 0-0 2; Harrison Ziemak 1 1-2 3. Totals: 24 15-25 64.

Three-point goals: Buchanan.

WINDHAM TECH 14 13 12 29 — 68

BOLTON 9 18 19 18 — 64

For coverage of UConn football and men's basketball as well as area high school and local youth sports, follow Adam Betz on Twitter: @AdBetz1, Facebook: Adam Betz — Sports Writer, and Instagram: @AdBetzJI.