Three local teams will play in the NVL boys basketball tournament semifinal round tonight at Wilby’s Reggie O’Brien Gymnasium.
Just like the girls tournament semifinal round last week, only two of those three teams will reach the final. In today’s first game at 5 p.m., sixth-seeded Waterbury Career Academy faces second-seeded Naugatuck. It will be the first official meeting between the Spartans and Greyhounds. WCA will need to be focused for 32 minutes on defense against a balanced Naugatuck attack. Four Greyhounds averaged in double figures during the regular season.
In the second game at 7 p.m., top-seeded Sacred Heart puts its 124-game NVL win streak on the line against its city Catholic school rival, fourth-seeded Holy Cross. The teams met twice during the regular season, and the Hearts claimed wins in both games. The Crusaders will play without Akili Evans, who is being held out of the tournament due to an “internal decision,” as I reported in Sunday’s Waterbury Republican-American. Holy Cross had tremendous offensive balance on Saturday in the quarterfinal round, and that would be a big help if it happened again tonight.
What’s on the line? WCA is looking for its first appearance in an NVL final. Sacred Heart has won five straight NVL tournaments and is looking to make its seventh straight appearance in the final. Holy Cross is looking to reach its first final since making back-to-back appearances in 2017 and 2018.
What happened on Saturday? WCA upended third-seeded Crosby, 73-59. Lawrence Lazaro led the Spartans with 24 points. Gerald Council contributed 19 and Jonathan Edwards added 12.
Holy Cross knocked off fifth-seeded St. Paul, 81-69. The Crusaders got 26 points from Kyle Lombardi, 20 from Arthur Pappas, 16 from Jahvon Myrthil and 13 from Sam Henderlite.
Sacred Heart ousted eighth-seeded Ansonia, 72-43. Caleb Sampson had 30 points, which was the top number in the quarterfinal round. Trevahn Duncan added 10 points. Lorenzo Washington had nine points, all in the second half, after he sat out the first half. As I reported in Sunday’s Republican-American, coach Jon Carroll wouldn’t comment on why Washington didn’t play in the first half.
Photo captions: First photo — Senior Lawrence Lazaro is looking to help WCA soar into its first-ever appearance in the NVL tournament final. The sixth-seeded Spartans will have to upend second-seeded Naugatuck tonight to get there. Second photo — Sacred Heart junior Caleb Sampson is one player Holy Cross will have to try to contain tonight.
(Copyright, Sports on CT-69)
Galleries
Here are my photos from Saturday’s WCA-Crosby quarterfinal.
Here are my photos from Saturday’s Holy Cross-St. Paul quarterfinal.
Here are my photos from Saturday’s Sacred Heart quarterfinal.
