By Michael Letendre
The postseason has finally arrived for the boys squads in the Central Connecticut Conference play this week.
Four different playoff brackets will commence with the winner of the first tier crowned the CCC Tournament champion after winning three games.
And that first bracket is stacked to the gills.
Bristol Central is in the championship mix off its outstanding 12-0 campaign and are ranked fourth in the tournament fray.
The team earned a home seed against No. 5 Windsor in a must-see first round challenge.
“It’s exciting to look forward to something,” said Central senior forward Sean Wininger. “Coming into the year, we thought we were [just] going to have a twelve-game season and call it that but we have something to look forward to and win.”
“We just have to lock-in next week, one day at a time, one win at a time.”
Windsor is the only 11-1 team in CCC play this season and the program is a scoring juggernaut.
The Warriors have scored 100 or more points twice this season against two teams with sub-.500 records.
But Central doesn’t care about those type of scoring exploits and simply wants to play against some of the best programs the state has to offer.
“It’s going to show us who we really are and how well we play against kids who have the same record and are as good as us,” said Central junior center Donovan Clingan. “We just have to be the better team mentally, physically, skill-wise and hopefully come out with wins.”
Northwest Catholic is the top seed, Maloney is second and East Catholic is a deceiving third – all carrying 12-0 ledgers.
After Central and Windsor, Middletown (No. 6, 10-2 overall), East Hartford (No. 7, 9-3), and Edwin O. Smith (No. 8, 9-3) round out the championship field.
After playing four games last week, catching up from being stuck in COVID protocol for 14 days, Bristol Eastern (No. 28, 2-8), stays home for a first round showdown against No. 29 South Windsor (2-10) in the fourth bracket on Tuesday.
It was a trying week for the Lancers, going 0-4 and losing two games by just a single possession.
The program is looking forward to the tournament and hitting the hardwood at least a couple more times before closing shop.
“We’ll see if we can regroup, take a day off, get a day of practice and kind of go from there,” said Eastern coach Bunty Ray. “We have a couple more games left. This was a tough week. I hope emotionally and physically, we can come back out of it and get going.”
Wethersfield (5-5) will not be included in the tournament field.
Instead, Hartford Public (3-9) is the top seed in the fourth bracket and squares off against the winner of the South Windsor/Bristol Eastern showdown.
Finally, old friend Ryan Raponey – the coach over at Lewis Mills – sees his 18th ranked Spartans take on No. 23 Conard from the Thunderdome (two teams enter, one team leaves) in Burlington on Tuesday night.
Raponey might be stuck in quarantine until Wednesday but could still coach at least one tournament game before the postseason concludes.
Here are the pairings for the 2021 CCC Tournament:
CCC BOYS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
PAIRINGS
Championship Bracket
Round 1 – March 22
#8 EO Smith at #1 NW Catholic
#5 Windsor at #4 Bristol Central
#6 Middletown at #3 East Catholic
#7 East Hartford at #2 Maloney
Bracket No. 2
Round 1 March 22
#16 New Britain at #9 Simsbury
#13 Hall at #12 Glastonbury
#14 Berlin at #11 Avon
#15 Newington at #10 Farmington
Bracket No. 3
Round 1 March 23
#24 Manchester at #17 Southington
#21 Rocky Hill at #20 Plainville
#22 RHAM at #19 Platt
#23 Conard at #18 Lewis Mills
Bracket No. 4
Round 1 March 23
#32 BYE at #25 Hartford Public
#29 South Windsor at #28 Bristol Eastern
#30 Enfield at #27 Bloomfield
#31 Bulkeley at #26 Tolland
