By Kim J. Harmon

It seemed like basketball heaven last Thursday night at the Reed Intermediate School.

Not only were there thoughts of the NCAA Tournament (and, in particular, the Arizona-Oklahoma State game that night and the Michigan State-Duke game the following night) running through a lot of people’s minds, but there was also some thrilling basketball being played in front of their eyes as the Newtown Youth Basketball League decided its Junior and Intermediate Boys championships.

The Bullets defeated the Knicks, 41-36, to capture the Intermediate Division title in the evening’s first game and the Wildcats followed with a 63-60 win over the Huskies to capture the Junior Division title in the nightcap.

Here is how it went –

JUNIOR BOYS

Wildcats 63, Huskies 60

Despite the amazing fourth-quarter effort of Joe Cappiello (12 points), the perimeter shooting of AJ Ritchie (a pair of three-pointers) or the tough down low play by Ethan Johnson and Zach Brazo it’s hard to argue that the Junior Boys championship game hinged on the presence of one player.

Jake DeVellis of the Wildcats, who scored 39 points (17 in the third quarter alone) and led the ‘Cats to a 63-60 win over the Huskies last Thursday night at the Reed Intermediate School.

The most dynamic offensive threat in the league, DeVellis was nearly an unstoppable force for four minutes each period, but the reason why this game was decided in the final five seconds was because of what the Huskies did when DeVellis was not on the floor.

With guys like Cappiello, Zack Dlouhy, Ryan Daly and Brazo leading the way the Huskies out-scored the Wildcats, 36-8, while DeVellis was sitting on the bench. And in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter, with DeVellis on the floor, the Huskies played the Wildcats even and came up just short as a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer went wide of the mark.

That was sure a far cry from the way things may have looked early in the first quarter as the Wildcats raced out to a 13-2 advantage. DeVellis scored 10 points in that early run and registered two blocks and looked ready to carry the Wildcats to a blowout.

But the Huskies turned things right around in the latter half of the period and went on a 12-2 run to trim the Wildcats’ lead to 15-14. Dlouhy scored seven points (including a three-pointer off glass at the buzzer) and Cappiello added five to fuel the run.

The only thing that kept the ‘Cats on top was a basket by CJ Portolese.

In the second quarter, though, the Huskies took a brief lead on a bucket by Mike Mouchantant. After Johnson tied the score for the ‘Cats with a free throw, JR Shine popped in a free throw for the Huskies and Ritchie followed with his first three-pointer of the game to give the Huskies a three-point lead, 20-17.

Even though the ‘Cats raced off on an 8-0 run (with six points from DeVellis) to recapture the lead, 24-20, the Huskies took advantage of DeVellis’ absence and closed the first half on a 12-3 run to take a 32-27 lead at the break. Cappiello scored 10 points and Daly scored two while David Hutchison was the only one able to get the ball through the iron for the ‘Cats, hitting 3-of-4 foul shots.

DeVellis opened the third with a basket in the low post off a nice feed from Johnson, but the Huskies opened their largest lead of the game – six points – when Ritchie drained his second three-pointer of the game.

Unfortunately for the Huskies, Vince LaFrancesca and DeVellis canned back-to-back three-pointers to tie the score, 35-35. After DeVellis and Ritchie traded baskets and the game was tied, 37-37, the Wildcats went on a 12-1 run to open an 11-point lead. Johnson started the run for the ‘Cats with a putback basket and DeVellis added the next 10.

The only point for the Huskies came on a foul shot by Brazo. And when the mid-period substitutions were made, the Huskies were only able to shave a point of the Wildcats’ lead and faced a 51-41 deficit heading into the final quarter.

But as the Wildcats switched up their lineup for the fourth quarter, the Huskies were able to quickly cut into the lead as they opened the period on a 9-0 run. Brazo hit a pair of baskets, Ritchie added a free throw and a key assist, Dlouhy lofted up a shot as he stumbled down the floor, and Cappiello hit a runner in the lane and all of the sudden the Wildcats were only up one, 51-50.

From there, it seemed to become a test of wills between DeVellis and Cappiello as the two Newtown Middle School teammates combined for 18 of the 22 points scored down the stretch. But the Wildcats – who also got a couple of key baskets from Johnson – managed to hold off the Huskies for the championship.

WILDCATS: Jake DeVellis, Mike Gabor, Ethan Johnson, Mike Lago, David Hutchison, Mitchell Udiskey, Vince LaFrancesca, CJ Portolese, Keith Reszoly, Tyler Reszoly.

HUSKIES: Joe Cappiello, AJ Ritchie, Zach Brazo, JR Shine, Ryan Daly, Zach Dlouhy, Zack Dent, Adam Buccino, Cody Mather, Mike Mouchantant.

INTERMEDIATE BOYS

Bullets 41, Knicks 36

A 12-point lead with 2:20 left in the fourth quarter might make just about any coach feel pretty comfortable.

Not Jack Shpunt.

Even with his Bullets holding on to that 12-point lead in the Intermediate Boys championship game last Thursday night at the Reed Intermediate School, coach Shpunt knew the Knicks still had their best players on the floor and that anything could happen.

Well – anything almost did happen.

The Knicks went off on a 7-0 run in the final two minutes of that fourth quarter and pulled to within five points when the nerve-wracking rally ran out of gas and the Bullets were able to breathe a sigh of relief having secured the division title with a 41-36 victory.

It was a big sigh of relief because the Bullets took an early 8-2 lead in this game and led by as many as 16 points very early in the fourth quarter and yet had to fight hard to hold off the hard-charging Knicks at the end.

Derek Krewson got the Bullets started immediately after the opening tip and added another bucket a little later to stake the Bullets to a 6-0 lead. Wlasuk got the Knicks on the board but Kerr finished off the first with a runner in the lane that put the Bullets up 8-2.

But the Knicks rallied to start the second, with Johnson scoring three points (1-of-2 from the foul line) and Luke Sherwood adding two on a short jumper to cut the Bullet lead to one, 8-7. The Bullets tried to pull away on consecutive baskets by Greg Campbell and another runner by Kerr, but the Knicks stayed closed on buckets from Tom Anderau, Jimmy Russo (a rim rattler) and Erik Samuelson.

Justin Spath gave the Bullets a little breathing room, however, when he canned a shot with two seconds left in the half to put his team up, 16-13.

That bucket seemed to stoke a fire under the Bullets, who out-scored the Knicks, 18-6, in the third period to open up a 34-19 lead. Campbell scored eight points for the Bullets and Kerr added six with Krewson and Joe Pieretti each tossing in a basket.

And when Rob Daigle popped in a free throw to open the fourth period, the Bullets had their largest lead of the game – 16 points – and appeared poised to coast to the finish. But the Knicks chipped away at that lead on three baskets by Johnson and one each by Samuelson and White and with about four minutes away were down only eight, 37-29.

The lead could have been even smaller had Jon Hull not made a key steal and Kory Kling not popped in his only basket of the game.

But with the lead dwindling to single digits, Kerr hit a pair of baskets to put the Bullets back up by 12 with 2:20 left.

It may have looked like the Knicks were finished … but they didn’t think so.

John Wlasuk started the rally with a foul shot and John Johnson (15 points, 10 in the fourth quarter) fueled it further with back-to-back baskets off crisp assists from Dan White and Tom Anderau. White then added a bucket off glass with 32.7 seconds left to trim the lead to 41-36.

But the rally ran out of gas and the Bullets were able to hang on from there to secure the Intermediate Boys division title.

BULLETS: Sam Kerr, Greg Campbell, Derek Krewson, Joe Pieretti, Justin Spath, Kory Kling, Pat Zingaro, Jon Hill, Robert Daigle, Robert Uhde.

KNICKS: Dan White, John Johnson, John Wlasuk, Thomas Anderau, Erik Samuelson, Michael Fitzsimmons, Luke Sherwood, Thomas Johnson, Jimmy Russo, Ashinay Tyagarajan.