Printer Friendly Version - Guilford Boys’ Hoops Edged by Hamden in Conference Semis; Henry Swims to Two Top-Five Finishes at SCCs

Sophomore Aidan Henry took second place in the 200 individual medley and finished fifth in the 50 freestyle for the Branford-Guilford boys’ swimming and diving team at the SCC Championship meet on Feb. 28. Visit Zip06.com to see more photos from the SCC Championship. Photo by Kelley Fryer/The Courier

The Guilford boys’ basketball team played in its first SCC Tournament semifinal since 2002 last week and gave Hamden all it could handle in the game, before ultimately dropping a 71-69 decision. With their record of 20-2, the Indians will open up play in the Division III State Tournament this week.

On Feb. 26, the 2nd-seeded Indians battled No. 3 Hamden in the SCC semis at the Floyd Little Athletic Center and took a 71-69 defeat. Guilford trailed 62-49 early in the fourth quarter, but then fought back to cut the deficit to one at 64-63. With Hamden leading by five, Ian Slattery hit a 3-pointer with 19 seconds left in regulation to make it a two-point game. However, Guilford was unable to get another shot off before the game finished, and Hamden hung on for the victory. Sam Dombroski scored 21 points, while Noah Rubino and Josh Krause scored 14 points apiece for the Indians.

Also last week, Guilford’s Head Coach Jeff DeMaio was named the SCC Coach of the Year for the 2017-’18 campaign. Dombroski and Rubino were selected to the All-SCC First Team, while Matt Donlan and Krause both made the Second Team.

Next up for the Indians is the Division III State Tournament. Following a first-round bye, top-seeded Guilford opened the tournament in the second round at home on March 7 (after press time), hosting either No. 16 E.O. Smith or No. 17 Cheney Tech. The quarterfinals are on Friday, March 9; the semis take place on Tuesday, March 13; and the championship game is at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville on either Saturday, March 17 or Sunday, March 18.

Sophomore Aidan Henry finished in the top five of two events, including a second-place showing in the 200 individual medley, for the Branford-Guilford boys’ swimming and diving team at last week’s SCC Championship. Henry, a sophomore at Guilford High School, scored 63 points between his two top-five performances to help his team score 265 points and finish in 11th place out of 15 teams at the SCC meet, which was held at Southern Connecticut State University on Feb. 28.

Henry posted a time of 2:00.87 in the 200 individual medley to take second place, only finishing behind Fairfield Prep’s Richard Nolan, who swam a 1:55.65. Later in the evening, Henry took fifth place in the 50 freestyle by hitting the finish line with a time of 50.26 seconds.

Henry also swam the anchor leg on a pair of relays at the SCC Championship. In the 400 freestyle relay, the team of freshman Daniel Kamen, junior Noah Horton, junior Andrew Orce, and Henry finished in eighth place with a time of 3:38.74. In the 200 freestyle relay, Horton, Kamen, Orce, and Henry came in 12th place by swimming a 1:39.68.

Branford-Guilford’s 200 medley relay of freshman David Zhang, junior Matthew Daley, Horton, and sophomore Evan Laughlin finished 13th with a time of 1:57.91. Orce finished 23rd in the 100 breaststroke (1:11.08) and came in 32nd place in the 100 freestyle (56.57) at the meet. Freshman Connor Coyne took 24th place in the 200 freestyle and was 31st for the 100 butterfly (1:02.32). Kamen placed 27th in the 500 freestyle (5:28.84) and finished 28th in the 200 freestyle at 2:01.15.

The day before the swimming portion of the meet, the SCC Diving Championship took place at Southern Connecticut State University, where freshman Emanuel Acevedo totaled a score of 271.30 points to finish in 10th place out of 19 divers.

The Indians competed in the Class L State Tournament as the No. 20 seed last week and saw their season come to a close with a three-point defeat against Bassick. The Indians concluded their campaign with an overall record of 11-11.

Guilford traveled to No. 13 Bassick in the first round of states on Feb. 27 and dropped a 48-45 decision. Bassick jumped out to an early lead that it never relinquished to get the narrow victory. In the fourth quarter, the Lions built their lead to 40-30 with five minutes remaining. Samantha Leiby and Amanda King (an All-SCC Second Team selection) each hit a 3-pointer as the Indians went on a 13-5 run to cut the margin to 45-43. Guilford had the ball at mid-court with 5.5 seconds on the clock, but the Indians couldn’t attempt a game-tying three before time expired. Leiby paced the Indians with 12 points, plus Molly Linell and Janie Danaher chipped in nine and eight points, respectively.

Meredith Bloss and Jacqui Guerra represented the Guilford girls’ indoor track team at the New England Championship on March 3 at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

Bloss competed in the 3,200 and cracked the top 10 with a sixth-place showing behind a time of 11 minutes and 6.6 seconds. Guerra ran the 1,000 event and came in 15th place with a time of 3 minutes and 5.54 seconds.