Many people know Mohegan Sun Arena as a place to go for concerts or shows, but to the boys basketball team and their fans it will forever be the site where they won NCHS’s first State Championship since 1962, courtesy of a 55-39 win over Granby Memorial on March 16th.
“It’s amazing that we were able to win states since it has been so long,”senior Matt Brand said, “It’s been a great process since the new coaching staff came in three years ago and I am confident that they will be able to maintain their winning status.”
The Rams got off to a slow start, trailing 9-1 to start the game. This led to Coach Danny Melzer calling a timeout to help the team settle down and play their game. “I think their nerves, the excitement of playing at Mohegan Sun and playing in the State Championship got the best of them,” Coach Melzer said.
After the timeout, the Rams found the rhythm that made them so successful all season by gaining momentum in the early second quarter on three consecutive three-point shots (two from Ryan McAleer and one from Alex Gibbens) giving the Rams an 18-15 lead. This momentum continued throughout the game as the Rams managed to outscore Granby Memorial 35-14 over the second and third quarters, eventually ending in a final score of 55-39.
One thing that also made the Rams so prosperous in the championship game was their relentless defense. They forced 22 turnovers, 10 of which were steals. But the Rams defense was not only strong against Granby Memorial. “Our defense has been key our whole season and especially in the state tournament,” Matt said.
“We were able to hold 3 of our 4 opponents to under 40 points, which is phenomenal,” Coach Danny Melzer added.
The Rams, however, did not believe that they were going to breeze through the tournament. Their semi-final game against St. Joe’s was expected to be a tough one considering that St. Joe’s is an FCIAC opponent, so the teams had already faced off against each other. Even though the Rams had beaten them 55-44 in their first meeting, they were not expecting an easy game.
One of the Rams’ biggest concerns was all FCIAC player Stephen Paolini, who played well for St. Joe’s in the first three quarters, scoring nine points in the first quarter alone. After the first half, senior captain Luke Rwambuya stepped up and guarded Stephen, holding him to just four points. “Luke stepped up as a senior captain and said ‘I wanna guard him, I’m gonna shut him down’ and he did and that completely changed the game for us,” Coach Melzer said.
The St. Joe’s Cadets led by 7 after one quarter, but the Rams were able to pull ahead 26-24 going into halftime after a strong 18-10 run. To start the second half, the Rams went on another strong run, outscoring the Cadets 11-5, but the St. Joe’s team did not give up, closing in on the Rams to make it 37-36 going into the fourth quarter.
“We went into the 4th quarter only up one point, but I was confident that we were going to win that game. They made a nice run at us, but I was confident that our guys were ready to withstand that,” Coach Melzer remarked.
His confidence was not mistaken as the Rams pulled away in the fourth quarter. “The way we responded in the 4th quarter was Gibbens came out and knocked down a 3 and we got a couple stops and next thing you know, we are up double digits,” said Coach Melzer. The Rams managed to maintain their lead with a final score of 62-51.
Before this difficult but dominant performance against St. Joe’s, the Rams faced off in the quarterfinals against 5th seeded St. Bernard from Uncasville. The game started off in favor of St. Bernard after they took the lead 11-10 at the end of the first quarter, but the Rams’ defense took over before halftime, giving them a 10 point lead to start the third. This momentum continued from the third quarter to the fourth quarter as they were able to pull ahead by double digits and ended ahead by a score of 57-38.
In the second round against Griswold, the Rams continued to dominate both offensively and defensively, beating them by 23. This control that the Rams had over their opponents throughout the tournament can be contributed to a few different factors including the realization of what they needed to do coming off of their loss to Ridgefield in the FCIAC tournament.
“I think losing to Ridgefield in the FCIAC playoffs kind of helped us refocus and helped us to understand what we need to do in a playoff setting and that we needed to play our best basketball and make sure that we paid very close attention to detail,” Coach Melzer said.
Coach Melzer also mentioned that after the boys’ long season, the team was starting to get a little worn down, so he shortened their practices to ensure they were fresh for the tournament. “We shortened practice towards the end of the season, the guys were starting to get worn down, and were starting to be physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted,” he said.
However, this understandable exhaustion from the lengthy season was not noticeable on the court, and the basketball team even received some motivation from other athletes and coaches. “One of the coolest things I’ve seen is when all of the spring sport athletes came in and cheered us on right before the state tournament during our practice. I think that was certainly extra motivation for the kids,” Coach Melzer said.
This extra motivation may have helped during the state tournament, but the Rams had been offensively consistent throughout the regular season as well, outscoring their FCIAC opponents by a combined 83 points. When asked why the offense had been so successful Coach Melzer said, “Our unselfishness. We really passed to the open man, we cut without the ball, our point guard play out of Ryan Mcaleer and Luke Rwambuya was phenomenal and our execution and our ability to move without the ball was a tremendous success for us.”
This unselfishness was evident in how many players had an impact on the team. “I thought pretty much everyone stepped up in the tournament but they stepped up at different moments. We got multiple contribution from multiple kids like we always do. It was a microcosm of our entire season in that we don’t just rely on one or two guys, we rely on 8 or 9 guys, that held true in the state tournament as well,” Coach Melzer said.
