Northwest Catholic earned a spot in the state tournament with a statement win over West Hartford rival Hall Wednesday night.
By Marlon Pitter
With three games remaining, Northwest Catholic entered Wednesday night needing a win to make the state tournament and extend its season.
Behind 21 points each from Nicholas Gomeau and Matt Curtis, the Lions punched their playoff ticket with a dominating 74-56 victory over Hall in West Hartford.
Jonah Obi chipped in 18 points – including an emphatic dunk in the fourth quarter – as the Lions took control of the game early and hardly let the Warriors within striking distance throughout.
“I’m just really excited for our kids tonight,” said Northwest Catholic head coach John Mirabello. “We really needed the game. … At halftime, the [lead] got down to seven. We talked about it, and they came right out and extended it in the third quarter. That’s the growth we’ve been hoping for all season.”
For Mirabello, getting the team’s eighth win against stiff competition means the Lions can continue to play basketball without a state tournament bid looming over their heads.
“We can’t think about the state tournament until we’re in, and now we’re in and that changes everything,” he said.
Leading 7-6 two minutes into the game, Northwest Catholic went on a 13-6 run to end the first quarter with a 22-12 advantage.
Halfway through the second quarter, the Lions doubled up the Warriors 33-16. Hall (10-8) went on a 12-3 run over the last four minutes of the half, capped off by a Bryan Renker 3-pointer to make it a 36-29 game at the intermission.
The late run didn’t springboard the Warriors, however, as the Lions continued to exert their dominance to start the second half. Hall head coach Bryan Moretti said he wanted his team to make stops defensively to start the third quarter to climb back into the game.
“Defensively, we were really poor on some simple exchanges – some simple ball screen exchanges, some back screen exchanges,” Moretti said. “We were not very good, did not communicate well enough against a good team. We talked about some real simple things we wanted to do, and we didn’t do them.”
Curtis and Gomeau took control of the scoring for Northwest Catholic – both topping the 20-point plateau in the fourth quarter – while James DeCrisantis (17 points) and Max Boyd (15 points) tried to bring Hall back in the second half.
Curtis made two free throws to give the Lions a 57-39 lead into the final frame as they outscored the Warriors 19-10 in the third.
Obi put Northwest Catholic ahead by 20 with a baseline slam dunk at the 7:05 mark. He later made a layup that gave the Lions a 65-43 lead, their largest of the night.
“To cap off a great game for us, I figure [I’m going to] go up and [I’m going to] put it down and get the crowd excited,” Obi said. “When I get the opportunity, I like to do that regardless of the situation, but especially [then], it was a big dunk to cap the game off.”
With the loss, Hall looks to end its four-game skid on Friday against Bristol Central (8-10) on Senior Night. The Warriors will finish the regular season at Conard (3-15) Tuesday morning at 11 a.m..
Northwest Catholic will host Middletown (5-12) on Friday and Southington (12-6) on Monday to finish the regular season. An improved team over the course of the season, Curtis said the Lions are in a good position heading into the playoffs.
“The sky is the limit for this team,” Curtis said. “We started off slow, but we’re really coming alive. We’re a totally different team than we were a month ago, two months ago. We’re starting to play together. It’s just a good team.”
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