Pomperaug High School’s Noah Miree, No. 15, has come on lately to lead the hard-charging Panthers as they clinched the South West Conference Colonial Division for the first time since 2011. (Ken Morse photo)
By KEN MORSE Special to the Middlebury Bee Intelligencer
The Pomperaug boys basketball team achieved the team’s first goal Jan. 19, when they defeated New Fairfield 57-39, improving to 8-2 on the season and qualifying for the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference state tournament.
The next team challenge was in sight, and last week the Panthers cleared that hurdle, clinching the Colonial Division of the South West Conference (SWC) by picking up two more victories and improving to 14-3 on the season and 9-1 in the Division.
“The last couple of weeks we have really started to come on,” said Pomperaug head coach Dave Yachtis. “We are definitely heading in the right direction. We have a solid offense with Rich Pugliese, Noah Miree and Chase Belden scoring in double figures on a consistent basis.
“We have a strong presence on defense led by Grant Wallace, Matt Wynne and Josh McGettigan. We are playing with a lot of confidence, and if we do have one weakness it’s probably we can be a better rebounding team.”
Pomperaug showed its strength last week in an 81-68 win over Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport on Tuesday and last Friday’s 72-66 victory over Newtown. Miree led the way over Kolbe, scoring 22 points for his second game in a row over the 20-point mark.
Pugliese and Belden both hit for 17 points, and McGettigan checked in with 11 points in the win over the Cougars. Wallace with six points and Wynne with four points followed by two points each from Jacob Mendicino and Tom Satkowski concluded the scoring for the Panthers.
“Noah has really taken his game up a notch,” said Yachtis. “He is going strong to the basket, and his jump shot has improved tremendously. He has shown the ability to take over a game.
“Chase has an excellent outside shot with three games this year hitting for five 3-pointers in a game. When he is on, it really opens up our inside game. And he is amazingly athletic, taking it to the basket as well.
“Rich gives us a third guy who can bring the ball up though traffic, making us a hard team to defend. It’s very rare when you see our offense struggle.”
Pomperaug got out to an 18-14 lead in the first quarter Friday against Newtown. The Panthers then shifted gears and outscored the Nighthawks 21-9 to take over the game, building a 39-23 halftime advantage.
Belden got hot, hitting five 3-pointers to lead the way with 21 points. Miree threw down 16 points with McGettigan adding 14 points as Pomperaug put up 33 second-half points to secure the win.
Pugliese’s nine points, Wallace’s eight points and Wynne’s four points finished up the scoring for the Panthers as Newtown tried to close the gap, erupting for 24 third-quarter points.
Pomperaug had enough of a defensive presence to hold off the Nighthawks and go on to clinch the Colonial Division for the first since the 2011 season.
“We have a shot at the number one seed in the SWC tournament,” said Yachtis. “If we win out (win the last three games) there could possibly be a three-way tie for the top spot, and it would come down to a lottery.
“Either way we will see Notre Dame of Fairfield or Immaculate in the semifinals, but we need to win the quarterfinal matchup first. We need to play better than we did against Notre Dame the first time around.
“We got out-rebounded and didn’t have our best shooting night; in fact, we only hit 5 of 14 from the free throw line. Definitely not one of our better games this season. But if we come out and play hard and stay focused, we should be competitive no matter who we play in the tournament.”
Pomperaug has one more home game on the schedule for the regular season as the Tuesday, Feb. 16, game with Bethel was rescheduled to Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 7 p.m. at the Panthers Den. The Panthers will then travel to Stratford Thursday to take on the Red Devils and next Tuesday, Feb. 23, will have them in Danbury to take on the 16-1 Patriot Division champion Mustangs of Immaculate.
Friday, Feb. 26, Pomperaug will host a quarterfinal round game in the SWC tournament against an opponent to be determined. The SWC semifinals will be held Monday Feb. 29, at Weston, and the SWC final will be played Thursday, March 3, at a site yet to be decided.
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