UNCASVILLE – A year ago, the Windsor boys basketball team was home, starting to think about spring sports. Junior Anthony Williams was rehabilitating his broken leg, injured at a pep rally, dreaming, maybe, about next season and what his team could do.
And Saturday night at Mohegan Sun Arena, Windsor achieved its goal. The second-seeded Warriors (25-3) outlasted No. 12 West Haven 59-57 to win the Division II title, coach Ken Smith’s first championship since 2014 and Windsor’s fifth overall.
“Staying here all four years, this being our last game with Coach Smith at Windsor, we knew we wanted to win this bad,” Windsor senior Kaiden James said. “We didn’t want to go home not being able to win a championship.”
Windsor wins a wild one 59-57 in OT over West Haven for the Div II title #ctbb pic.twitter.com/NEsXiqmOw0
— Lori Riley (@lrileysports) March 17, 2024
Windsor senior Gyan Davis had 14 points and 16 rebounds while Williams, who returned to play this season, had 17 rebounds and 13 points. Freshman Missoni Brown, who was named the Most Outstanding Player, had 14 points and eight rebounds and some clutch shots down the stretch, including four points in overtime.
“That was probably the hardest we played all year and it did take a lot of energy,” Williams said.
Windsor outrebounded West Haven 60-45.
Windsor started off slowly and trailed 19-7 after one quarter.
“I was very nervous,” Williams said. “Absolutely.”
“They came out strong on us,” James said. “We just knew we had to turn it around.”
They did, slowly. By halftime, West Haven’s lead was six, 28-22. By the end of the third quarter, Windsor had cut it to 37-34. Brown hit a 3-pointer early in the fourth to put Windsor up 39-37.
Then it was back and forth, a battle. Every time the ball went up and somebody missed, there was a scrum under the basket. There was a lot of rebounding because there were a lot of missed shots – Windsor shot 25 percent from the field (19 for 76) while West Haven went 23 for 60.
“Those West Haven kids are really tough kids,” Williams said. “We had to match their energy, get on the glass.”
Williams made one of two free throws with 40.9 seconds left in regulation to tie the score at 48 and the game went into overtime.
Windsor went on a 7-0 run to start overtime and took a 55-48 lead on two Brown free throws with 2:33 left. But West Haven came back. With 30 seconds left, Aaron Johnson hit a shot to cut Windsor’s lead to 59-57. The Warriors hung on to win.
“I feel like we all played shaky at the beginning of the game, even at the end of the game, we was playing shaky,” Williams said. “But Coach Smith kept pushing us and pushing us. His words really helped us get through that game.”
