By David Fierro
The FAA Basketball Tournament begins tomorrow, Feb. 24, but when Greenwich Country Day School hosted neighborhood opponent Brunswick School on Feb. 19, it indeed had the feel and look of a playoff game – a championship matchup for that matter.
The stands were completely full at Greenwich Country Day School’s new Donovan Mitchell Family Athletic Center, with the numerous spectators cheering throughout this Fairchester Athletic Association duel between the rival Bruins and Tigers.
As is the case when Greenwich Country Day and Brunswick meet on the basketball court, the game came right down to the final seconds and in this particular contest, overtime was needed to settle the score.
Behind most of the game, Greenwich Country Day took the lead in overtime and held Brunswick to two points in the extra quarter to earn a 69-65 win in an FAA thriller. Junior guard Noah Williams scored 20 points and junior forward Rowan Introzzi added 19 points to propel the Tigers to victory.
Greenwich Country Day School, Brunswick and King School each finished with a 7-1 record in the FAA. King, which defeated both Brunswick and GCDS, is seeded No. 1 in the FAA Tournament. The Tigers are seeded second and Brunswick is the No. 3 seed.
In the showdown between GCDS and Brunswick on Feb. 19, the Bruins held a 31-26 halftime lead and held an advantage between four and six points the majority of the second half. The Tigers forced overtime, courtesy of Introzzi, who drove hard to the basket and threw down a dunk with just over four seconds remaining in the second half, tying the score at 63-63.
Brunswick, which has an overall record of 12-10 overall after starting the season slowly, received a game-high 28 points from junior guard Rhaki Lum and 13 points from senior Mason Jarvis. The hosts outscored the Bruins, 6-2, in the four-minute overtime session.
“The fact that it took us to overtime to finally get the lead, that says a lot about the resolve of our team,” Greenwich Country Day coach Patrick Scanlon said. “We had not had a win of that caliber where I thought we were down and not playing well. I said to them, ‘that wasn’t a basketball win, that was a character win.”
A foul shot by guard Jaylen Johnson gave Brunswick a 65-64 lead with 2:12 left in overtime. Sophomore guard Nick Triolo converted a pair of free throws, putting GCDS ahead for good at 66-65 with 1:08 to go in overtime.
“We had enough character and made enough plays,” said Scanlon, whose Tigers defeated the Bruins in the 2025 FAA Tournament’s championship game. “Credit to Brunswick, they’re so tough. That was a game that could have gone either way.”
A basket by Introzzi made it 3-2 in favor of GCDS, which was the only lead in had in regulation play, as Brunswick played from in front thereafter. Jarvis’ layup off a steal at the 12:32 mark of the first half gave the Bruins an 8-3 edge.
The 6-foot-5 Introzzi grabbed an offensive rebound and scored and also swished a 3-pointer from the top of the key, pulling the host Tigers to within 11-10 with 10:47 to go in the opening half. Later in the quarter, a dunk by Lum extended Brunswick’s lead to 18-12. Another basket by Lum, followed by a layup from sophomore 6-5 forward Gabe Dunleavy put ‘Wick on top, 28-19.
“You don’t play in a lot of these environments over the course of the year and with the type of adversity we faced – I’m so proud of these guys, they fought and fought,” Brunswick first-season coach Nate Jean-Baptiste said.
Another layup by Lum, which followed a 3-pointer gave the Bruins a 39-39 advantage with 13:17 to play in the second half. The Tigers cut their deficit to 50-48 when junior guard Charles Branch spun to his left on his way to converting a layup at the 7:40 mark of the second stanza.
Triolo scored 13 points, 11 of which came in the second half, 6-7 sophomore forward Mekai Brown had seven points Branch added six in the winning effort.
“We’re really talented offensively, so I knew if we could just get enough stops defensively, which was tough,” Scanlon noted. “Credit to them, they were making so many good 1-on-1 plays and scoring, we just couldn’t get enough stops. We were changing defenses, we were trying this and that.”
With 5:05 left to play in the second half, the 6-2 Lum, Brunswick’s leading scorer, was assessed with two technical fouls and was ejected from the game. Sophomore guard Caden Tate’s basket gave the Bruins a 63-56 lead at the 3:12 mark of the second half.
Key baskets from Branch and Introzzi down the stretch forced overtime, much to the delight of the GCDS fans.
“We’re so lucky – the support for our team has been incredible,” Scanlon said. “Our crowd really comes out. The crowd was amazing and they hung with us, just like our team.”
Johnson contributed six points, while Brandon Jean totaled five points and 6-5 junior forward Connor Robinson had four points for Brunswick, which also saw several of its players foul out.
“We stayed the course, we could have fallen apart,” Jean-Baptiste noted. “We have 12 new players on this team, this is a whole new team. They play hard for each other and believe in each other.”
Third-seeded Brunswick hosts sixth-seeded Hamden Hall Country Day School in the FAA Tournament quarterfinals tomorrow (Feb. 24) at 4:30 p.m.
“It’s all learning lessons, they always say you learn more in losses than wins,” Jean-Baptiste said. “I hope this burns – we have a lot more basketball left. We are in a decent spot in the FAA Tournament and we just have to take a step back, gather ourselves, physically, mentally, emotionally and be ready to take the next step forward.”
GCDS, seeded second, hosts seventh-seeded Masters School in the FAA quarterfinals tomorrow (Feb. 24) at 5 p.m.
“We did not execute well in the first half, we executed better in the second half,” Scanlon said of his squad’s win over ‘Wick. “But we saved some of our best execution for overtime and got a couple of good looks and got to the free throw line.”
