Victor Payne takes charge as Cromwell boys basketball advances in state tournament
CROMWELL — In all his years of coaching basketball, Cromwell coach John Pinone had never seen anything like it.
After sitting out much of the first half of the Shoreline Conference tournament championship game on March 3 due to foul trouble, Cromwell’s junior guard/forward Victor Payne scored 33 of his 35 points in the second half to boost the Panthers to the title.
“We ran a few things for him, got some isolations and he just had a great second half,” Pinone said. “Not in my years in Cromwell — we’ve had some good players — but 33 in a half, we haven’t had that.”
He had scored 37 points in the regular-season finale, a loss to Morgan on Feb. 22.
Thursday night, in a Division IV second-round game against 16th-seed Weston, Payne had a quieter game, with 12 points in the 58-42 victory. Weston’s Casper Leary was playing pretty physical defense on him, so Payne got to do what he likes best — pass. He also finished with seven assists.
“It’s going to be more physical, it’s the state tournament,” Pinone said. “The biggest thing for Victor next year is making his body 20-25 pounds bigger if he wants to play at the next level.
“He’s a great athlete, makes it look easy the way he can get to the basket, see over the top of people, make some passes — he’s a really, really good passer. We had to push him to shoot more because he’s so unselfish.”
Luke Gagnon had five 3-pointers and 17 points, and Tyler Daniele added 12 Thursday to lead Cromwell (22-2 and the top seed in Div. IV). The Panthers, which advanced to the state semifinal last year, will host No. 9 Windham, last year’s Division V champion, in a quarterfinal game on Monday at 7 p.m.
Payne averages 25 points per game, along with seven rebounds, four assists and two steals.
“I had to step up from the beginning,” he said. “Coach told me to step up, we’re going to need a lot out of you.
“I like to pass. I didn’t take as many shots. Coach told me I need to shoot more, especially now because teams can beat us. It’s not like a walk in the park anymore.”
He remembered being annoyed at what he called his two “stupid fouls” in the first half of the Shoreline final. He only played six minutes in the first half and Cromwell trailed 22-13 at halftime.
“The first play [of the second half] we ran, it was an [isolation play] for Victor and they couldn’t stop him,” senior teammate Jake Salafia said. “We just kept running it over and over and they couldn’t stop him. He took over.
“He just takes it to a different level, so every time we can get him the ball, we get it to him because he’s unstoppable.”
Last year, the Panthers were also the No. 1 seed and lost to Granby in the semifinals. Their goal is to make it past that game this time, although it won’t be easy.
“We remember last year, we remember how bad it felt when we lost,” Salafia said. “We’re using that as fuel for the tournament.”
