The Greenwich High boys basketball team held an 11-point lead with 2:45 left to play at Danbury High School Friday night, but couldn’t hold on to the late advantage as the Hatters stayed atop the FCIAC thanks to clutch plays in the final few possessions of the game.
With 7.6 seconds left, Danbury drew up a baseline inbounds play for Massiah Crandel to get open underneath the basket and the junior forward delivered with a game-winning layup to improve Danbury’s record to 14-2 and 11-1 in FCIAC play.
“I thought the kids just showed a lot of heart,” said Danbury head coach Casey Bock. “I think they did a great job after struggling for three quarters. The kids didn’t give up tonight. Towards the end, we played like we didn’t want to lose and we were able to get second shots. I don’t know how we did it, but we stole the game.”
Danbury ended the game on an 8-0 run after being down by seven points with a 1:30 left to play. The Cardinals couldn’t connect from the free throw line and costly turnovers gave the Hatters a second life late in the game.
After Mike Gianopoulos fouled out for Greenwich, it was Danbury’s Scott Nesbitt who converted an and-1 play off a missed free throw attempt to pull them within four points. A single free throw cut the lead to three and a double-foul call gave the ball back to Danbury after it appeared Greenwich secured a rebound.
Nesbitt, a senior guard, pushed the tempo in the final seconds and got his team within one point. A Greenwich turnover gave the ball promptly back to Danbury, when Crandell received the inbounds pass after slipping a set screen for a teammate — giving his team the lead for the first time since an early 4-3 score in the first minutes of the game.
“We didn’t handle the pressure and we didn’t make our foul shots,” Greenwich head coach Pat Heaton said. “It’s simple as that. They had more energy then us. We went to the gym of the number one team in the league and we gift wrapped them a game at the end with our play.”
For Danbury, Crandel finished with 11 points (seven coming in the final quarter), Nesbitt led the team with 19 points while Judah Jones and Tyren McCrea both pitched in seven points.
Kieran Caroll led Greenwich with 17 points and Conor Harkins finished with 16 points with four three-pointers.
Greenwich (9-6, 7-5) next plays Monday at Fairfield Ludlowe at 7 p.m.
