Cards Fall to Warde in Regular Season Finale

By Rob Adams

Sentinel Reporter

The game shouldn’t have come down to the last shot for either team.

But it did.

In the end, it was the Greenwich High School boys basketball team who had a chance to steal the victory back from Fairfield Warde, but the Mustangs prevailed 61-60.

“For 30 minutes, we did a nice job of being patient and executing the offense,” Greenwich head coach Patrick Heaton said. “The switch from man to 2-3 in middle of 3rd quarter gave us a boost and slowed down their offense. The game was ours to win with 2 minutes left, we did not match Warde’s intensity.”

The Cardinals had been up 11 with approximately four minutes remaining, but Warde’s press defense caused Big Red to commit four turnovers that helped lead to a 15-0 run.

Down 61-57, senior captain Robert Clark hit a three from the right corner to cut the deficit to one with four seconds to play. The Cardinals needed to foul or get a turnover.

Cue the script writer.

Rashad Butler’s inbound pass resulted in a turnover as the Warde player stepped on the end line. The Cardinals had a final chance.

It wasn’t meant to be, as the Cardinals used leading scorer Conor Harkins as a decoy, and chose to work the ball down low. Warde got the stop they needed to seal the win.

“Unfortunately we didn’t have any time outs left, so we had to go with the play that we already had,” coach Heaton said on Greenwich Sentinel Doubleheader on WGCH Radio. “We’ve run that three or four times this year. It’s based on two or three defenders going with Conor outside the basket.”

The loss knocked the Cardinals out of FCIAC playoff contention, though Big Red will participate in the upcoming state tournament. Greenwich fell to 8-8 in the conference with the loss, and 9-11 overall.

Harkins, who told Greenwich Sentinel Doubleheader that he had an off shooting night, finished with 19 points, but electrified the senior night crowd with his hustle, including several standout defensive plays.

“Being a senior and a part of this program for four years, it would’ve obviously meant a lot to the guys to get a win in our last home game, but you have to give a lot of credit to Warde,” Harkins said. “They battled the entire game and just made more plays down the stretch.”

“I was disappointed for our seniors,” Heaton said. “We really wanted to send them off with a win.”

Clark finished with 15 points for Greenwich. Warde junior guard Sean Conway had 24 for the Mustangs, who still have a game with Ridgefield before concluding the regular season. They finished the night 15-4, 11-4 in the FCIAC, where they will play in the quarterfinals on Saturday at home. Marcel Parsons had 10 points for Warde, and Butler – a constant presence all night on both ends of the floor – finished with nine.

“They showed why they are in the FCIAC tournament and why they are contending for that championship,” said Harkins. “It was certainly not how we planned to end the regular season but as a group we are still confident we can make a run in the state tournament.”

Heaton said the Cardinals appear to be towards the bottom of the Class LL bracket.

“We’re going to end up somewhere between 26th and 30th,” he said. “Trumbull is one team we may end up playing. We’re excited. We’ve played teams of that caliber already, so we won’t be intimidated.”

“We’ll have an extra week of practice, which is pretty much the only positive you can take out of not making the FCIAC playoffs,” Harkins added. “We will have to look to improve and tighten some things up before going on to face the best teams in the state.

“Every game from now on has the potential to be the last high school game I ever play, so I know that I’ll go out and give it my all and so will the rest of our team.”

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