MANCHESTER – It was a typical East Catholic-Windsor boys basketball game Friday night.
The crowd was packed into the East Catholic gym to watch the two undefeated CCC rivals and there was a line outside the door in the rain. Inside, it was hot and humid and whenever the players went down, the floor was slick with sweat, keeping the guys mopping the floor with towels busy.
It was physical. Sincere Folk, who led East Catholic with 25 points, fouled out, as did two other East Catholic players. It was dramatic. East Catholic trailed by 18, then rallied almost all the way back to cut the lead to four in the fourth quarter. Players were cramping. One player ran off the floor to throw up toward the end of the game and he was back 20 seconds later.
“You can’t get this anywhere else,” East Catholic coach Luke Reilly said. “Everybody’s all in. It’s grassroots, high-level high school basketball and there’s nothing like it.”
Windsor won, 87-81, led by 35 points from junior Missoni Brown. Alex Weaver, a sophomore, added 21. Theo Perkins, a senior post player who transferred from East Catholic to Windsor, had 11 points.
“I was used to this environment, played here the last few years so it felt good to be back,” Perkins said. “It felt great to have the win especially. We knew coming into this game, it was going to be a big game. Everybody showed up.”
Windsor (6-0) had the size advantage and more experience. But East Catholic (6-1) pressed and forced turnovers and hit shots and the score was tied at 41 at halftime.
“We had the advantage but you got to play to the advantage and if you don’t play to the advantage, you have no advantage,” Windsor coach Ken Smith said. “They don’t understand, they try to do it by themselves. They can’t do that.
“What was hurting us at halftime was turnovers. Unforced. They was trying to do things so the crowd would say, ‘Wooo.’”
Windsor ended the third quarter with a 12-0 run, with Weaver hitting a 3-pointer to give the Warriors a 70-55 lead.
But the game was not over, even when Windsor took an 18-point lead early in the fourth. Folk hit two free throws, a floater in the lane and made a 3-point play to cut Windsor’s lead to 73-66. East Catholic pressed and forced more Windsor turnovers. With 2:33 left, Joey Montalvo hit a shot and and was fouled and the subsequent free throw to cut the lead further to 75-71 and it was a game again.
Then Windsor reasserted itself. Clinton Toomer had a putback; Brown hit back to back shots and the Warriors hung on to win.
Smith wasn’t thrilled about giving up 81 points.
“I told them I’m going to run them tomorrow,” he said.
Reilly wasn’t thrilled about losing, but was happy with his players’ effort.
“I knew we’d play with a lot of guts today,” he said. “In order to compete with Windsor, you got to be very physical. You got to be rugged enough. We just came up a little short.
“Joey and Sincere– they’re setting the tone. Those guys are tough and everybody’s kind of following along – (sophomores) Jamaul Padilla, Omar Torres – who’s throwing up in between quarters – these guys are willing to do whatever it takes to win and compete.”
And Feb. 13, the two teams will play again, at Windsor.
Windsor 87, East Catholic 81
Windsor 25 16 29 17 – 87
East Catholic 16 25 14 26 – 81
W- Ji Gary 3 2 11, Missoni Brown 11 9 35, Alex Weaver 6 7 21, Charles Lewis 0 1 1, Myles Rush 2 0 4, Clinton Toomer 1 2 4, Theo Perkins 5 1 11. Totals: 28 22 87.
EC-Omar Torres 4 6 14, Rocco Reilly 1 1 4, Joey Montalvo 5 1 13, Conner Conneely 3 0 6, Sincere Folk 10 5 25, Ryan Farley 2 0 4, Micah Forbes 1 0 2, Mahki Henderson 1 2 4, Jamaul Padilla 3 3 9. Totals: 30 18 81.
Records: Windsor, 6-0; East Catholic, 6-1.