UNCASVILLE – The Lewis Mills High boys basketball team never gave up.
No. 5 Bunnell ended the first half of the Division III state championship game with a nine-point lead and built it to 11 on an Alex Munoz layup one minute into the third quarter for the largest lead of the day.
The second-seeded Spartans proceeded to chip away at the lead, tying the score with 6:56 left in the fourth quarter and a minute later taking their first lead since late in the first quarter.
That set the stage for a back-and-forth final six minutes in which Bunnell ultimately prevailed, 45-40, to win the state title Saturday at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Mills coach Ryan Raponey told his team before the game that this was the best team he had ever coached, a sentiment that didn’t change after the final whistle.
“It is still the best team that I ever coached, and I have been around for a little bit,” Raponey said. “I will never forget them. It is sad to see it end and know that it’s the last time that we are going to break it down like that in our uniforms in the locker room.”
Facing that double-digit deficit, Lewis Mills (19-6) went on a 9-0 run capped by a Connor Evans layup with 3:23 left in the third to get within two. Evans drew the foul on the play, but missed the free throw. The Spartans and Bulldogs (21-6) traded points for the next few minutes.
Raponey had Lewis Mills switch to a triangle-and-two defense in the second half to try to slow Bunnell’s Jordan Ricketts (15 points, six rebounds), the game MVP, a strategy that had worked throughout the season.
“We haven’t tried to talk about (the triangle-and-two) publicly. We don’t want teams to be ready for it,” Raponey said. “But at this point, we understand there are no more games left. The kids just did a great job of carrying it out down the stretch.”
Thomas Dinunzio gave Lewis Mills a 37-35 lead with 6:11 left and Eli Pelletier gave Lewis Mills a 40-39 lead on a 3-pointer with 3:47 remaining.
“When the clock is still running and you are still playing a game, there is no reason to stop playing hard, ever,” Raponey said. “The next play, next point wins is what we say, and we play like that every possession, even if we are down 10. You still have to cover your assignment on defense. You still have to rebound. You still have to move the ball, take care of it and try to get good shots.”
The Bulldogs ended the game on a 6-0 run as the Spartans missed their final six shots to fall shy of their second state championship and first since 1996.
“When you go in there and you see the reactions of your guys and you know the time and the effort and everything that has gone into it to get to this point,” Raponey said, “you make sure that you let them know that nobody is going to forget everything that you have done to this point just because you lost this basketball game.”
Dinunzio led Lewis Mills with 11 points in 15 minutes off the bench. Evans notched a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds to go with three blocks. Pelletier totaled eight points and four assists while Tristan Mooney had seven points and seven boards.
But the Spartans left points on the table, shooting 16-of-42 (38%) from the field, including 2-of-18 (11%) from the 3-point arc. That fell just short of the 40% shooting taht Raponey noted usually results in a victory.
“I’ve got to credit Bunnell. They absolutely pressured the ball the entire game, and they do not relent,” Raponey said. “Even when you get a missed shot and a rebound, they are still coming at you. They don’t just get back like a lot of opponents you play against. We have played against this type of pressure before.
“We played Windsor early in the season, and we know where they are (in Division II final). Unfortunately, today I think they forced us into a few things a little bit quickly, a few shots that maybe we didn’t want to take and that led to a lower percentage.”
