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Harkins’ Career-High 36 Leads Greenwich to Win Over Ludlowe

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Conor Harkins' 36 points led Greenwich to a victory over Fairfeld Ludlowe on Tuesday night (Evan Triantafilidis photo)
Conor Harkins’ 36 points led Greenwich to a victory over Fairfeld Ludlowe on Tuesday night (Evan Triantafilidis photo)

 

By Evan Triantafilidis
Sentinel Reporter

A career-high 36 points from Conor Harkins led the way for Greenwich High in a 63-53 win over Fairfield Ludlowe.

The Cardinals improved to 4-4 overall and 3-1 in FCIAC play with the home win.

“I was just in the zone,” said Harkins, a senior captain. “You could say that. I got good shots off, I was open. Ben was setting good screens. Elias and everyone was getting me the ball in good spots. It was a big win for us.”

Harkins had 24 points at halftime, including 19 in the first quarter alone. At one point in the game’s first eight minutes, the senior shooting guard hit three consecutive long-range shots for Greenwich.

“Ben [Kraninger] definitely sets a mean screen,” said Harkins. “I would not want to run into that. Guys got me the ball in great spots and I credit the career-high to them.”

Now winners of two straight, the Cardinals will get into the meat of their conference schedule in the coming weeks with matchups against St. Joe’s, Ridgefield, Staples and Stamford all coming up in the next week.

GHS head coach Pat Heaton gave credit to their tough non-conference schedule that saw them play East Hartford, Notre Dame West-Haven and more earlier this season.

“If we play hard, play together and play our role, we can really compete with a lot of people,” said Heaton. We’re not intimidated by anybody. I think having that tough road schedule really helped us get tougher.”

Heaton has watched Harkins turn in similar and stellar individual performances and wasn’t surprised by his lights-out shooting night.

“I watch him everyday,” said Heaton with a smile. “In practice, in games…it doesn’t surprise me. He’s a special player and he did a nice job tonight.

Fairfield Ludlowe got within one point of the Cardinals on two separate occasions, but the Cardinals never let up the lead.

Ludlowe head coach John Dailey said he had yet to see a shooting performance like Harkins had during his time coaching. His teams’ effort to come back within one point was something he had seen before from his team.

“That’s classic us right now,” said Dailey. “We get within one and have the ball and we could never get the lead. Maybe if we got the lead it would be a different story right now. It’s a sign of our inexperience, I think.”

GHS head coach Heaton said he would like to see his teams close out the competition when they have the chance to earlier in the game.

“It’s going to come back and bite us,” said Heaton. “When we have teams on the ropes, we gotta knock them out. We could have been up by 15 or 16 at half, but instead it’s an eight-point game and they come out with the first seven points in the third.”

A 7-0 run to start the third quarter was propelled by Ludlowe’s Frank Lumaj and Ryan Keeley. Keeley had 12 points in the third quarter and 15 in total on the night.

The Cardinals got outscored in the third quarter 12-5, but Harkins returned with a big fourth quarter with nine points and going a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line.

“I feel like if we get to the fourth quarter in a close game, we’re in pretty good shape,” said Harkins. “Anyone can beat anyone. We can hang with anyone in this league and in the state. But it also works vice-versa where any team come come here and beat us.”

Robert Clark put up eight points, Ben Kraninger knocked down a jumper and Pat McTiernan provided another crowd-pumping and-one layup.

The Cardinals will next play St. Joes on Friday and then will travel to Ridgefield on Tuesday, January 17.

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