The Conard boys basketball team hosted Hall on Tuesday night in West Hartford. 

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Ronni Newton. Photos by Ronni Newton and Craig Rosenberg

Conard was trailing Hall by 11 after the first quarter, and the gap was a dozen at halftime, but the Titans held off a strong second-half effort by the Red Wolves to come away with a 51-46 win over their crosstown West Hartford rival Tuesday night.

Hall (9-2) came into the game with the better record, but head coach Bryan Moretti knew it could go either way.

“It’s a rivalry game,” he said. “Always a little hectic and crazy at the end obviously,” he said, with Conard cutting the lead to two with less than a minute left in the game.

Hall scored 20 points in the first frame, firing on all cylinders with five players scoring, led by Colby Hurlock who had six points.

It looked to be all Hall in the second quarter as well, but as the half was winding down Moe King scored for Conard and sophomore Ryan Barnum was fouled making a lay-up, completing an old-fashioned 3-pointer with the extra point from the charity stripe. The teams went to the locker room with Hall leading 31-19.

“They did a good job responding,” Conard coach Jared Leghorn said after he talked to his team at halftime. “We just talked about hitting singles, like make the simple play offensive and defensively and be really competitive.” He thought the team did a really good job taking away Hall’s shooters in the second half, and they were rebounding well, too.

“I was really proud of the way we battled back,” Leghorn said, showing what the team is capable of.

Conard scored 15 points in the third quarter, and was down six, 40-34, heading into the final frame.

“I never thought we were gonna run away with it,” Moretti said. “They’re very tough, very physical, and they play good. Some guys stepped up for them big time, and they made some big shots. They made huge 3s when it counted, when we were up 10 and 11, they kept coming back, they kept hitting 3s,” said Moretti.

Jon Rivera, a junior captain, led the scoring for Conard with 17 points, including two 3-pointers in the second half. He was also assigned to guard McKeown, and did a good job limiting him, Leghorn said. “He cares a lot and works really hard every single day, so I’m not surprised he had a good game tonight. He was leading us in practice yesterday.”

Junior Aidan Fox had 13 points for Conard, including two 3s.

Hurlock and Aiden Delaney both ended the game as Hall’s high scorers with 11 points each, but the win was a team effort, and Moretti also praised the play of Anthony McKeown. “Anthony really sets the table for us on both ends of the court,” Moretti said.

It was 48-46 with just 45 seconds left in the game, “and Colby [Hurlock] made clutch free throws at the end, so that was really big,” Moretti said.

With 17.5 seconds left it was still 48-46, and there was a scrum on the court – a loose ball that ended up being called a jump ball that went Hall’s way. Hurlock was fouled with 11.7 seconds left, hit the first one, and after a timeout made the second.

DaVonta Gaston was fouled with just 0.6 seconds left, missed the first but made the second, and the game ended with the 51-46 win for Hall.

Last year the teams split the series, with Hall winning the first game and Conard going on a winning streak after that, making it to the quarterfinals of the state tournament, and getting bumped up to Division 1.

“We’re in a touch spot right now. We lost a few games in a row and we just gotta keep being really competitive and practice.” Leghorn said, and although Fox is back in the lineup after being sidelined with an ankle injury, Max Tartaglia is out with an injury. “We’re in the state tournament. We’re gonna be playing in March so it’s just kind of about building up to that, getting healthy.”

The teams will meet again on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, at 6:45 p.m. at Hall. Next up for Hall (9-2) is Glastonbury (10-1) at home on Friday night. Conard (5-6) will host Windsor (8-3) on Thursday night.

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