By Michael Letendre
After winning the Central Connecticut Conference boys basketball tournament championship last Friday over East Catholic, would the squad from Bristol Central become the top ranked program in the state?
When you run the CCC gauntlet, coming out an unscathed 3-0 during championship week against three of top four ranked squads in the state, the Rams deserved the No. 1 billing in all of Connecticut.
The crew over at GameTimeCT agreed as Central – in the final boys basketball poll of the year – earned the top ranking, leap-frogging over East Catholic, Northwest Catholic and Windsor – all squads the Rams defeated along the way in claiming the CCC title win last week over an amazing five-day stretch with the victories over Northwest and East Catholic coming on the road.
State media, who helps determine the poll, gave Central (15-0) most of the first place votes, seizing 17 out of the 19 possible ballots awarded.
The GameTimeCT voting system is tabulated on a 30-28-26-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-11-10-9-8-7 point basis.
Central ended up with 566 points and moved up from fifth place two weeks ago to the No. 1 slot to end the scholastic year.
Sacred Heart, finishing the season at 14-0, earned the other two first place votes and ended things with 500 points.
The Hearts’ program will be no more at the end of the school year as the institution from Waterbury is closing its doors.
East Catholic (14-1, 484 points) was bounced from the top spot via the 69-68 overtime loss to Bristol Central in the title tilt while Northwest Catholic (13-1, 430) also fell to the Rams (71-60) in CCC Tournament play last Wednesday – dropping down to fourth in the final poll.
Ridgefield (15-1, 404) placed fifth, Notre Dame-Fairfield (11-1, 392) was voted in at sixth while West Haven (12-1, 340) – not ranked last week – won the SCC Division I title and nabbed seventh place overall.
Windsor (11-2, 313), the first team Central hung a loss on last week, dropped from fourth to eighth, Prince Tech went undefeated (15-0, 256) and earned ninth place while Kolbe Cathedral (13-1, 254) fell from sixth to tenth to round out the poll.
Morgan (15-0) and Capital Prep (14-0) also had undefeated seasons but did not place among the top-10 programs in Connecticut.
Central junior center Donovan Clingan averaged an impressive 36 points and 26 rebounds over one of the biggest weeks of basketball in Bristol Central program history.
