A win like the one the Greenwich High School boys basketball team had Tuesday night could go a long way.
Using a never give up attitude and finding ways to get the key baskets when needed, the Cardinals rebounded from several deficits to force overtime and went on please the home crowd with a 75-66 victory.
“This team has a lot of heart,” said Greenwich High School head coach Pat Heaton, who saw his team trail Notre Dame of West Haven by 15 and come back to take the lead near the end of the contest. “We are used to being down. We don’t get nervous. When we’re down, we know we can come back. We don’t want to do it all the time, but we know we have the ability to do it. There was no panic.”
Greenwich was led by Conor Harkins, who finished with 28 points and scored 12 of them in the fourth quarter.
“I felt confident,” Harkins said. “They were playing all of us tough and were all over us. That’s a really good team and that was a great win. We were down 10 and came all the way back and won it in overtime. The crowd was awesome and there’s no better feeling than that.”
Not to be outdone was Henry Golden, who finished with 14 points and was a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe.
“We have to work on our foul shots more and we have to work on beating pressure more, but it was a great win,” Golden said. “They have a lot of shooters that we have to worry about, but I think we played good defense.”
In addition, Michael Gianopoulos was strong, finishing with 11 points, while Kieran Carroll added 12 points, four of which came in overtime.
“They are a very good team obviously and shoot the ball well,” St. Joseph head coach Chris Watts said. “I never want to say that we gave someone a game, because obviously they earned the win, but I think if we handle what we have to handle and play within our game plan, those last couple of seconds the game is over in regulation.”
With the victory, Greenwich improved to 3-1 overall.
“As I told the guys, the winner of this game is in first place,” Heaton said. “Someone has to come and knock you off. We thought it was extremely crucial and it’s nice to say that for two days we are in first place.”
With the game knotted at 57 at the end of regulation, Greenwich exploded quickly out of the gate in overtime, as Golden got the quick layup and Harkins grabbed the offensive rebound and putback. After the Cadets went 1-for-2 from the line, it was Carroll who connected on the inside layup to give Big Red the 63-58 advantage.
Again St. Joe’s went 1-for-2 from the line and Greenwich kept the momentum going, as Golden drove the lane for the layup and Joey Lanni went 1-for-2 from the line to make the score 66-59 with 1:28 to play.
Big Red iced the contest when the duo of Golden and Robert Clarke each hit their foul shots and the duo of Lanni and Carroll connected on their layups under the rim to extend the lead.
“The kids played well,” Heaton said. “We felt at the beginning of the game that we didn’t run the floor very well. In the fourth quarter I told the guys that it’s time to start running the floor. We got some easy baskets and it kind of snowballed for us.”
Early on it was the Cadets that were on fire, as they built a 9-2 lead 2:12 to play in the first quarter. However, Big Red came storming back, as Gianopoulos grabbed the offensive rebound and putback, Harkins hit the floater and followed that up with three-pointer with 31 seconds left in the quarter to make the score 9-9.
Yet again the Cadets were strong in the second quarter, as Omar Telfer hit a layup midway through the quarter to give SJHS the 21-14 lead. But again Greenwich wouldn’t stay down. Carroll hit the layup with 2:58 to play in the half and Harkins followed that up with a long two.
Although the Cadets added a layup to make the score 23-18, Harkins hit another three ball and Carroll netted the layup off an offensive rebound to knot the score at 23-23.
Big Red saw the game start to get away from them to start the second half, as Joe Lucy and Curtis Ellen paced the Cadets on a 10-3 run and had the team leading Greenwich 41-28.
“One thing we’ve done differently this year is that we are well conditioned,” Watts said. “We have been running since the season started and these guys know that we are going to be in every single game this year because of that conditioning. We are playing a different style of basketball this year and that’s exciting for the kids to play and coach and watch.”
But for the third time in the game, the Cardinals wouldn’t let the Cardinal Crazies down.
Gianopoulos hit the floater, connected on the baseline three-pointer and went 1-for-2 from the free throw line to cut the deficit to 43-40 with 1:33 left in the third. A deep three-pointer by Harkins to start the fourth knotted the game at 43-43. Although St. Joe’s Telfer hit his foul shots, Harkins struck again with the fake and a three-pointer from the top of the key to give Greenwich the 46-45 lead with 6:41 to play.
“I thought we executed very well, especially towards the end of the game and in overtime,” Larkins said. “We were sound offensively and defensively I think we played the best we could of. We just kept on trying to run our plays and run our sets. It was a good win.”
Despite all the comebacks, it appeared that the Cadets would still pull out a victory. With 2:54 to play, an old-fashioned three-point play by Eller gave the Cadets a 57-50 lead. Instead of slowing the game down, the Cadets were still firing off shots and Greenwich hit the foul shots when it mattered and got a key bucket by Harkins to tie the game at 57.
“We had the game and not a lot of time on the clock,” Watts. “We were preaching in the huddle and as the game is going on to let clock run. Unfortunately, we were a little quick on some shots and we didn’t take a lot of time to score. We were thinking that maybe get to the rim instead of understanding the score and how much time was on the clock.”
