They were victims of their own success.
Neal Curland's own words and I can see his point. His Norwich Free Academy Wildcats went into the state tournament undefeated and had run their winning streak to 24 games.
Unfortunately, that puts a huge bullseye on your back and can become a huge burden to bear. Whether or not it played a role in their 72-50 loss to Danbury Wednesday night is debatable but it certainly didn't hurt Danbury's motivation.
They did what no other team before them had been able to do, frustrate NFA's fine pair of guards, Garvin McAlister and R.J. Evans. And, unlike in the previous 24 games, there was just no one there to bail them out.
Curland couldn't explain it, McAlister couldn't explain it, NFA just had an off night and as it grew so did Danbury's confidence. Such is the nature of high school basketball.
The Wildcats season is over but it won't be forgotten as they did establish four new school records including becoming the first to ever finish the regular season undefeated in school history.
It may hurt now but it look mighty good down the road- somewhere.
Check out today's Norwich Bulletin and Bulletin online for a little more on this NFA topic as well as a preview of tonight's Waterford-Old Saybrook Class M Quarterfinal and the New England gymnastics competition which takes place tomorrow.