'A dream come true': Griswold boys basketball team shows poise on Big Stage
UNCASVILLE ― The last time the Griswold boys basketball team played on a big stage was in 2004. Tom Brady had only two Super Bowl rings and the Red Sox were still seven months away from ending the Curse of the Bambino.
That March, legendary coach Gary Kinel guided the Wolverines on a state tournament run for the ages. After barely qualifying for the CIAC Division IV tournament with an 8-12 regular season mark, the No. 21 seeded Wolverines knocked off No. 12 Coginchaug in Durham, No. 5 Old Saybrook in Old Saybrook, No. 4 Wamogo at Maloney High in Meriden, and No. 16 Morgan in the state semifinals at Glastonbury High.
Talk about your basketball Cinderellas.
The state finals back then were held at Central Connecticut State University and, despite 24 points from senior guard Al Robillard, Griswold’s miracle run ended with a 55-45 loss to No. 6 Enfield.
Times have certainly changed. Brady has seven Super Bowl rings, the Red Sox have won more World Series titles than the Yankees over the last two decades, and New Britain is no longer the destination for high school basketball teams in March.
In 2009, the CIAC moved the state finals to the Mohegan Sun Arena. Sure, the state’s governing body for high school sports took some heat for having the games in a gambling den. Guess what? The CIAC made a brilliant move, the games are still there, and “Run to the Sun” is the rallying cry for basketball teams every March.
Run to the Sun
Now, thanks to ECC basketball chairman Jim Buonocore, Mohegan Sun’s Tom Cantone and Mike Libera and their staff, the teams in the ECC have a “mini-Run to the Sun” rallying cry at the end of February. Yup, the ECC tournament championship games were moved from Waterford High School to the Mohegan Sun in 2019. Classify that as another brilliant move.
On Wednesday, the Griswold and Killingly boys basketball teams met under the bright lights for the first time, each trying to win their first tournament banner in the building where Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, U2, The Who, and Billy Joel shook, rattled, and rolled, and the court where pros and collegians played. The arena’s staff was already gearing up for this weekend’s Big East Women’s Basketball Tournament, which was featuring the No. 1 scorer in the nation, Villanova’s Maddie Siegrist.
'A dream come true'
“It was basically a dream come true, to be honest,” Griswold senior Evan Merchant said. “All of us came here and just watched. We were used to watching. Last year we watched. Freshman year we watched. It was great to finally get the chance to win and play on this court.”
Top-seeded Griswold (20-3) had defeated Killingly twice during the regular season. The senior-laden Wolverines were deeper and more balanced but that wasn’t going to faze Killingly. Since losing to Griswold on Jan. 20, Killingly had gone 10-1. The Yianni and Johnny Show – cousins Yianni Baribeau and Johnny Kazantzis – and seniors Thomas Dreibholz and Logan Gagnon were thriving alongside freshman point guard Kolby Mills.
Sure enough, Killingly rallied from an 11-point deficit and trailed Griswold by just one point with three minutes remaining. The Sun was rockin’.
“Even though they’re seniors, we’ve never been on this stage,” Griswold coach Rob Mileski said.
Maybe in years past the Wolverines would have lost their composure in a close game. But seniors Jeff Souvenance, Christian Russell, Lucas Strain, Jacob Strain, Michael Strain, Tommy Mattson, and Merchant weren’t going to let this championship slip away.
“It’s a senior group and they’re learning to play with poise,” Mileski said. “They’re not getting rattled and that’s key.”
Down the stretch Griswold came up with some key rebounds, forced a couple of turnovers, and got two huge baskets inside from Severance.
Russell, who scored 24 points and was named the tournament’s outstanding player, sealed the victory with two free throws with 17 seconds left.
Here's how they did it:Griswold boys hoops captures first ECC tourney championship
“Coach tells us when we play with poise we play the best,” Merchant said. “It’s really the biggest part of our game, even though we might not be the best at it sometimes. When we play with poise we get better looks underneath instead of forcing shots on the outside. It’s better for us in the long run.”
Griswold now has the rare chance to win two championships at The Sun during the same year. Waterford did it in 2019.
“We always hoped to be here,” Russell said. “But after the first couple of games I kind of knew we were going to go far.”
The Wolverines are the No. 4 seed in the CIAC Division IV tournament and will host either No. 20 Valley Regional or No. 13 Suffield on Thursday, March 9 at 6:30 p.m. The tourney’s top three seeds are Cromwell, Wamogo, and Ellington.
“We really wanted to do something big this year,” Souvenance said.
And it doesn’t get any bigger than winning a championship at the Mohegan Sun.
Jimmy Zanor can be reached at norwichbulletin.com.
This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Griswold wins ECC title at Mohegan Sun Arena against Killingly
