The Crosby boys basketball team is one of five from the area that are near the top of the NVL standings. The Bulldogs are 9-1 in league play. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69)
Take a look at the overall NVL boys basketball standings on the new CIAC website, and you’ll see five area teams at the top.
Crosby (9-2), WCA (9-3), Holy Cross (8-2), Wilby (7-3) and St. Paul (7-3) are those five teams. The Bulldogs and Spartans, by virtue of being in Division I, are already in the state tournament. All 17 schools make the Division I state tournament. The Crusaders have clinched their Division II berth, while the Wildcats and Falcons are each a win away from earning their spots in divisions III and IV.
That’s what it says on the CIAC website. As far the NVL actually goes, it’s a little different. The league switched to a power point system, and this is how it lists the teams:
- Crosby, 9-1, 37 points
- WCA, 9-1, 36 points
- Holy Cross, 8-1, 32 points
- Seymour, 7-4, 27 points
- Wilby, 7-3, 25 points
- Torrington, 6-3, 22 points
- St. Paul, 6-3, 20 points
The power points system information was provided to me by Seymour head coach Joe Carrafiello, so thank you to him for that.
Anyway, here’s a quick look at each of the five area teams:
- Crosby has lost a single game in the NVL (9-1) with the other loss coming against Kolbe Cathedral-Bridgeport from the South-West Conference. The Bulldogs’ one league loss was to WCA at home on Jan. 12. Crosby owns wins over Holy Cross, Wilby and St. Paul.
- WCA had been undefeated in the NVL until dropping a home contest to Holy Cross on Jan. 17. The Spartans are also 9-1 in league play.
- Holy Cross is 8-1 in NVL play with its only loss coming on the road against Crosby back on Dec. 19. The Crusaders have won eight straight league games since, and their only loss since the one to the Bulldogs came against Notre Dame-West Haven of the Southern Connecticut Conference in the first Anthony Ireland Holiday Classic on Dec. 23 at Crosby.
- Wilby has played all of its games in the NVL with losses against Naugatuck (Jan. 5), Holy Cross (Jan. 10) and Crosby (Jan. 18). The Wildcats don’t play a non-league game until Feb. 5 against Warren Harding in Bridgeport. The Presidents are an independent team, one of three in the state.
- St. Paul played all but one first half game in the NVL. The Falcons are 6-3 in league play (losses to Crosby on Dec. 27, WCA on Jan. 3, and Torrington on Jan. 5) and defeated Windsor Locks of the North Central Connecticut Conference on Dec. 29 in a non-league contest. The Torrington loss was a tough one, on a 3-pointer with three seconds left.
