It was a busy night locally for high school boys basketball, but not a single area team was playing.
Instead, three different gyms were used by the CIAC as neutral sites for state tournament semifinal games. Wolcott High School’s John H. Morris Gymnasium was the site of the Division V game between No. 4 Wamogo and No. 1 East Hampton.
At Kennedy’s Jack Taglia Gymnasium, No. 1 Northwestern and No. 5 Kolbe Cathedral (Bridgeport) played in one Division IV semifinal. Across town, Wilby’s Reggie O’Brien Gymnasium was the site for the other Division IV semifinal between No. 3 Wilcox Tech (Meriden) and No. 26 Rocky Hill.
I covered the Wamogo-East Hampton game for the Waterbury Republican-American, and the atmosphere inside the John H. Morris Gymnasium was terrific. There were over 900 people in attendance, with a pretty even number wearing Wamogo red or East Hampton blue and white. Wolcott did a great job hosting the game and the crowd was into it. Wamogo upended previously undefeated East Hampton 64-57.
At Kennedy, Kolbe Cathedral took down Northwestern, another top seed and Berkshire League team, 65-51. In the game at Wilby, No. 26 Rocky Hill continued its amazing postseason run with a 66-51 win over Wilcox Tech.
Three games, three different area gyms, one great night for high school boys basketball.