Dominant Falcons soar past Windham, win ECC Div. II title
Feb. 14—WINDHAM — Not since the teams of former coach Tom Doyle nearly 20 years ago did the Fitch basketball locker room have the joyous din it did Tuesday night.
The Falcons jumped around, danced, sang and celebrated their best win of the year, a 79-64 thumping of Windham, to clinch the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II title — and did so against the Whippets who are the state's defending Div. V champs.
"The kids were really motivated," said Fitch coach Charles Sylvan, whose team is 15-4 and finished 8-0 in the division. "They knew they were playing a good team tonight and wanted to prove they could do something like this."
And they did it with an exclamation point. Fitch led 36-12 at one point in the first half, by 13 at halftime and never let Windham (13-5, 6-2) closer than seven in the second half.
"I'm happy for the kids and for the school to win the division," Sylvan said. "It's exciting for them. Plus, they have to go through a lot. They have to put up with me. They went from 7-13 last year to this spot."
Kevin Ravix led the Falcons with 19 points. Mikey Wagner had 15, Jacob Francis scored 13 and freshman guard J.J. Robinson has eight points and eight assists.
"This was for the division. Very exciting," Wagner said. "We started out hot and that was a big thing. We were ready on the bus ride to play this game. Plus, we love ruining other people's senior nights."
Wagner's near-dunk with five minutes left gave Fitch a 71-54 lead, its biggest to that point in the second half. Wagner was alone on the break and nearly threw down (the ball went in anyway).
"My legs died," Wagner said. "I was tired. I went up and went 'uh oh.'"
Travis Mangual, who scored his 1,000th career point last week at Waterford, led the Whippets with 25 points.
Fitch will be the No. 2 seed in the upcoming conference tournament.
"We lost a few tough games early, but we knew our potential," Wagner said. "We knew what kind of talent we had. It's just exciting to go out there and be able to show it."
