Watterlond's Heroics Lifts East Granby High Past Granby Memorial

The vs. boys basketball game Tuesday evening wasn’t pretty, but the action-packed finish is one that neither school will forget anytime soon.

In front of a raucous crowd of about 500 people, Brian Watterlond’s court-length drive resulted in a 3-point play with 2.7 seconds left in overtime to lift East Granby to a thrilling 47 - 45 victory, giving the Crusaders their first win over their biggest rivals in over six years.

East Granby supporters were so thrilled with the victory, they stormed the court and lifted Watterlond on their shoulders in tribute to the game’s hero.

“I’ve always dreamed of doing something like that, and when I finally got the chance, I wasn’t going to pass it up,” Watterlond said of his late-game heroics. “It was exhilarating. I’ve seen that in movies, now it's happened to me.”

It was an unconventional victory for the Crusaders (7-4), who won despite scoring just two field goals in the last 15:30 of the game, including overtime. Couple that with less-than-stellar free-throw shooting (11-for-20) and just five points from leading scorer Ryan Aeschliman, and you generally have a recipe for disaster for East Granby.

“We missed layups, we missed free throws,” East Granby head coach Jeff Moger said. “We should have won the game in regulation if we made free throws. We’re a pretty good free throw shooting team, but the guys were so tired and they played with so much heart and so much emotion, you get there and the legs are a little short, your shot is a little off, there’s pressure. We should have salted the game away with free throws, but we hung on anyway. Brian made a great play to save us.”

And while Granby Memorial (4-7) did a great job of bottling up Aeschliman, his teammates filled in nicely.

Guard Noah Fersch poured in a team-high 14 points, Ray Marek had nine (and pulled down numerous clutch rebounds), Watterlond and Kyle Bowers each had eight and Dylan O’Brien had three.

East Granby looked like they would run away with the game when Watterlond put the Crusaders up by nine with a basket with 3:38 left in the third quarter.

But Granby Memorial came storming back, courtesy of a late charge late in the third and early in the fourth quarter with Carlin Champion (11 points) putting the Bears up for the first time in the game, 36-35, with a pull-up jumper with 5:01 left in regulation.

Fersch kept the Crusaders in the game and accounted for all of East Granby’s points - six - in the fourth quarter, all of which came from the free-throw line.

“Noah makes us go with great passing and great free throw shooting,” Moger said. “He made a lot down the stretch.”

In overtime, Granby Memorial’s Nick Mazzotta put his team up 42-40 with two of his game-high 21 points, but Marek answered with a bucket of his own to bring East Granby level.

“We just couldn’t stop Mazzotta,” Moger said. “He’s just too big and he jumps right over our guys. He’s a great player.”

Champion gave the Bears the lead again with a drive to the basket, only to have Fersch sink two free throws with 2:12 remaining in overtime.

Neither team scored again until Champion hit one of two free throws with 7.5 seconds left, giving Granby Memorial a one-point lead at 45-44 and setting up Watterlond’s drive down the length of the court, where he was fouled while laying the ball in to put East Granby up by one.

In a moment of confusion, East Granby fans stormed the court, even though there were 2.7 seconds left.

“I’m like, what are you boys doing?” Moger said. “My players were there waving them on. It’s like, hey, there’s a lot of time left. What are we doing? I knew they didn’t have a timeout and I wasn’t going to call one.”

Anyway, Watterlond subsequently hit his free throw and Granby Memorial’s desperation heave fell short, setting off a second wave of pandemonium.

So, what’s it like to beat your chief rival on your home floor in front of so many fans?

“It’s amazing,” Watterlond said. “Three years so far of high school and it hasn’t happened. We got close last year and we knew we had a chance this year. So we had that chance and we came through.”

Indeed, last year, Granby Memorial won 52-51, as East Granby's would-be buzzer beater clanged off the rim. Granby Memorial suffered its fifth loss of the season by four points or less.

“I’m going to lose my job,” Bears head coach Wally Hansen quipped while smiling. “We fought back down nine I was impressed with that. I was impressed on how we fought back. We got back to the overtime. It was awesome.”

Mike Noyes had five points for the Bears, while Dan Clark had four and Jake Yankauskas and Kenny Joslyn each had two

As for the intense atmosphere that supported of both teams brought to the auditorium, Hansen said that he embraced it.

“At some point I was just smiling and enjoying it,” Hansen said. “I told my kids, ‘Enjoy this. This is what it’s all about. You want to play in these games with a bunch of fans screaming your name.’ The only people who didn’t enjoy it was us. Everyone else enjoyed the show. It was one of those games where I don’t think anyone lost. Tip your hat to them. They made one more play than we did. They fought and fought and fought and fought. They were tough.”