Conard starts the season on the losing end of a hard-fought contest against a strong New Britain team.

By Marlon Pitter

Despite an 18-point performance by junior Arsen Shtefan, the Conard boys basketball team suffered a 69-54 setback in its season opener against New Britain at home in West Hartford Thursday night.

Thameen Dupree led the Golden Hurricanes with a game-high 24 points and was one of four in double figures for New Britain along with Nyzaiah Diaz (12), Shamah Charles (11) and Maurice Turner (10).

Peter Simplicio and Connor Olechna chipped in 12 and 10 points for Conard, respectively.

“This was a test tonight,” Conard head coach Jared Leghorn said. “That’s a really, really good New Britain team. They’re coming off 15 wins last year – and they’re better this year – so I was just looking to see if we could compete versus a good team, and I thought we really did.”

Conard led 10-7 halfway through the first quarter, but New Britain’s athleticism took over as the visitors went on a 9-2 run the end the period up 16-12.

Despite struggling from the free throw line, the Golden Hurricanes were able to stretch their lead in the second quarter by pressuring the ball in Conard’s backcourt to force turnovers.

New Britain led 29-18 at the half.

Adjusting to full-court traps in the second half, the Chieftains were more effective in scoring and moving the ball offensively but could not stop the Golden Hurricanes on the offensive glass.

“Our press breaker, we weren’t executing it correctly in the first half and it caused a lot of turnovers,” Leghorn said. “Once we got it going in the second half, we got some really good looks, but then in the second half, we weren’t rebounding at all. I don’t know what the stats are right now, but I’m sure they had a lot of second-chance points. Without watching (the film), those are the two things that stood out to me.”

Conard stayed in the game with clutch shooting from beyond the arc, as Shtefan made three 3-pointers in the third quarter (four overall) and Olechna drained a buzzer-beater to cut New Britain’s lead to 51-36 heading into the fourth.

The Chieftains slimmed the margin to 52-43 with 5:40 to play, but the Golden Hurricanes converted on chances to put the game out of reach down the stretch.

New Britain made six of its 11 free throws in the fourth quarter and 10 of 25 overall. Conard made eight of its nine attempts from the charity stripe.

As Conard falls to 0-1 to start the year, Leghorn looks for the team to stick a defensive-minded identity for success.

“Our identity is defense first,” he said. “We held teams to 48 (points per) game last year. We want that down to 45 or 46. We have the guys that can do it. They trust each other on defense. They’re athletes. And then, once we get stops, push the ball and just (create) a lot of ball movement to get an open three or drive it to the basket. I think you’ll see as we go that we’re going to be able to do those things successfully.”

The Chieftains host Avon on Tuesday night. The Falcons will make their season debut coming off a 12-8 regular season and a state championship appearance last year.

“We competed like hell against a very good team tonight, so I’m proud of us,” Leghorn said, “and if we do that against the rest of our schedule, we’re going to be tough.”

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