Belote Helps Unbeaten Spartans Advance to CCC Final

A game Maloney had complete control of had slipped away.  A raucous crowd was reveling in their sudden collapse.  But the Spartans remained unfazed -- and unbeaten.

Ryan Belote scored 22 points –including two key 3-pointers in overtime – as No. 2 seed Maloney outlasted No. 3 Hartford Public, 73-67, at Bulkeley’s Babe Allen Fieldhouse Tuesday in the semifinals of the CCC Tournament.

Zach Milslagle scored 16 points before leaving with a minor knee injury and Gemel McLeod added 12 points for the Spartans (23-0), who will advance to play No. 4 seed Windsor in the championship game on the same court Thursday.

The Spartans surged ahead late in the first half and led by nine points midway through the fourth quarter before the Owls (21-1) mounted a furious comeback.  Derrick Guy had 16 points for Hartford Public, which forced overtime by pressuring Maloney into mistakes during a 15-6 fourth-quarter run.

The Spartans, fighting against both the Owls and the partisan crowd, never lost their composure even after Jaiquan Wynter’s layup with 35 seconds left in regulation tied the game at 61.

“The crowd was going crazy. All of us stepped up,” McLeod said.

“Our mentality was just to stay focused like we have been doing all year,” said Belote, who missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer at the end of regulation. “We’ve been down before. In the Bristol Eastern game we were down by 10 in the fourth quarter. We just had to keep our composure.”

Maloney its cue from coach Howie Hewitt, who in his own admission, has mellowed over the years.

“I just try to keep cool (in that situation)” said Hewitt, the school’s all-time winningest coach who led the Spartans to a Class L state championship in 2008.

“I just to keep cool and keep those guys cool for a change.  When I was a little big younger I might have been a little bit crazier. It rubbed off a little bit.”

It’s a good thing too, because Hartford Public was there waiting to pounce on the Spartans had they shown any sign of weakness.

That never happened.  Instead, the Spartans regrouped after Guy’s layup gave the Owls the first lead of overtime. He was fouled on the play, but missed the free throw – a reoccurring theme for Hartford Public.

Belote quickly answered with a 3-pointer that gave the Spartans a 64-3 lead 48 seconds into the four minute overtime period.  After a defensive stop, the senior drilled another from long range, swinging the momentum back in Maloney’s favor.

Wynter’s putback made it 67-65 with 1:42 left, but Belote was fouled on the ensuing possession and hit a pair of free throws to keep the Owls at bay.  Belote and McLeod then combined to hit 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch, helping the Spartans punch their ticket to the final.

“We weren’t scared. We just calmed down, played the game like we usually do, and got back our lead,” McLeod said.

Added Belote:  “I thought we did a good job on defense down the stretch. Guys hit big shots and we pulled it off.”

Hartford Public, meanwhile, was left to wonder what could have been. The Owls were just was 13 of 28 from the free-throw line.

Wynter in particular could have given his team a bigger advantage than the 8-2 lead it jumped out to in the first quarter. He was a force in the paint from the onset, but was just 1 of 5 from the free-throw line in the first half.

The Spartans, who forced 19 turnovers, weathered the early storm and trailed 15-14 after one quarter.  McLeod took charge late in the first quarter and came up with a couple key steals that help Maloney get easy points in transition.

“I saw us down a little so I had to pick us up right off the bat,” McLeod said.

The second quarter was nip-and-tuck until the Spartans took their first lead on a 3-pointer from Belote that made it 28-25 with 2:32 left in the period.

That was the first good sign that Belote, a 51 percent 3-point shooter, was breaking out of his early slump.  He had miss fired on his first four 3-point attempts, but kept at it.

 “Shooters keep shooting,” Belote said.  “They were going to fall in the second half.”

And they did. The Spartans, who led 35-29 at the half, opened the second half on a 6-0 run. They extended the lead to 11 points near the end of the third, quieting the pro-Hartford Public crowd.

But Guy led the Owls comeback, which was fueled by a full-court press that gave Maloney fits. The Spartans turned the ball over five times – including on successive possessions.  Still, Hewitt let them play through it, refusing to call a timeout.

“I don’t really like to call a timeout because, to me, the momentum goes even further,” he said. “Now, they get in the huddle and go, ‘Yeah, they had to call a timeout!’ We know what we’re doing. I’ve tried to do that my entire career; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

“I just think it puts more pressure on our kids because we had to call a timeout to tell them what to do. We know what we are doing.”

What they are doing is advancing to the championship game against Windsor, which beat No. 1 seed Northwest Catholic in surprisingly easy fashion (90-65) in the first game.

“We got a big game on Thursday. It’s going to be a tough one,” Belote said.

It can’t be too much tougher than the one they just played.