Unstoppable.
It's a good word to describe New London center Allan Chaney on Wednesday night as he and his teammates took all of the fight out of Killingly early and ran away with the Eastern Connecticut Conference semifinal between the two, 85-53.
If third-seeded Killingly had any thoughts of upsetting the second-seed and host, those hopes were quickly dashed by Chaney's play. The Redmen had no one to guard the six-foot-eight-inch center and eventually were forced to put their own future Division-I player, Shane Gibson, on him.
Gibson blocked a couple of Chaney's shots to no avail. Chaney simply picked the ball back up on both occasions and stuffed it home. That's what a six-inch height advantage will do for you and how a few hang-on-the-rim slam dunks can take the will away from an opponent.
The Whalers move on to meet NFA in the final Friday night on New London's court. The Wildcats won it last season, and do have a couple of six-foot-six-inch pivot players to go after Chaney with. The odds-on favorite, however, New London.

Have you ever felt like the air just went out of a gym?
That's what it was like Tuesday night at Norwich Free Academy.
After a fun and entertaining girls basketball championship game on Friday night with a large crowd and two good teams, NFA and Stonington, on the floor. Tuesday night seemed to have all the thrill of a midseason game in January.
It really wasn't that way, of course, as we're already into the win or go home portion of the season. NFA started off a little slow but gradually imposed its will upon Newington and walked away with a 74-50 win.
The next task won't be so easy as the Wildcats have to play the Golden Hurricanes of New Britain on the road on Thursday. New Britain, the two-time defending state champ, had a rough start to the season, but are right back near the top of the state poll and feature one of the best players in the state.
Tonight, you might want to check out the Eastern Connecticut Conference semifinals in New London, three future Division-I players and a future Division-II player all on the floor as fourth-seed Stonington meets top-seed NFA in the first game at 6 p.m. The second at 7:30 pits third-seeded Killingly against No.2 seed and host, New London.

Here's a little insider info from the press covering the State Open wrestling championship.
We were just about all in agreement that a Sunday final round was the best scheduling that could occur.
Why?
It's simple, really.
On Sunday, I wrote about how busy Saturday was. Well, that was not only for the Norwich Bulletin but also just about every other newspaper in the state with basketball tournaments and the like. So, it was much easier for all of us when the snow on Friday pushed back the championship round to Sunday.
The athletes didn't seem to mind, either.
Of course, it won't stay this way because the CIAC has a strict policy regarding regular schedules on Sunday- it isn't allowed.
But one thing that could happen as Sunday proved, could we move up the time on the finals (when they occur on Saturday as well) to 4 p.m. like yesterday?
Just some thoughts from press row at the State Open wrestling championship.

If there was one thing to be said about Saturday- it was busy.
Actually, one of busiest days of the year when it comes to local athletics.
We had the championship game of the Eastern Connecticut Conference girls basketball tournament, won by Stonington for the first time since 1994.
Those who attended, and the gym was just about full to capacity, saw an entertaining game that the Bears just pulled out 53-48.
Remember, that game was supposed to be played on Friday night but old man winter got in the way. That meant the girls title game had to compete with the ECC boys quarterfinals going on just down the road at St. Bernard.
The top four seeds, NFA, New London, Killingly and Stonington, did what they had to do there and advanced to Wednesday's semifinals.
Also going on, the State Open wrestling championships in New Haven where the Eastern Connecticut Conference made a good showing in the first day with Ledyard in second place and Windham in fourth.
There was also the ECC Cheerleading championships in Waterford where the host team, Griswold and Putnam won titles.
Let's not forget the ECC fencing championship, nor the Constitution State Conference boys basketball quarterfinals and just to add to the fun, both the UConn men and women were playing.
You know what I call all that - fun.
See you today at the State Open Wrestling championships. If you can't make it, read all about it on line today at norwichbulletin.com or in the paper tomorrow.

For the most part, the Eastern Connecticut Conference boys tournament pairings look to be set.
Norwich Free Academy, by virtue of its win over fifth-seeded Windham, will be the top seed and will be just one of two teams who receive first-round byes.
The other will be New London, also undefeated, and sitting in the second-seed spot.
The third seed will be Killingly which will have a play-in round game at home Thursday night against Wheeler.
Ledyard, Bacon, Montville and East Lyme all finished 7-9 in the league schedule which does toss things up in the air for the 10 through 13 spots. If my interpretation is correct (and it may not be) Ledyard is 2-0 in the mini-conference between the four who are tied, Montville is 1-1 and both Bacon and East Lyme are 1-2. That makes Ledyard the 10th seed, Montville No. 11, East Lyme (by virtue of a win over Bacon) 12-seed and Bacon 13th.
That leaves this scenario for the play in games Thursday, Bacon at Stonington, East Lyme at Windham, Montville at Woodstock and Ledyard at Plainfield. Putnam, the 8th seed, hosts Waterford.
The quarterfinals will be played Saturday at St. Bernard. New London hosts the semifinals and championship games on Wednesday and Friday of next week.

Some will argue that it's good to have new and fresh ideas come on board to revitalize a program.
I'm not so sure.
This past October, Tony Falzarano stepped away from high school basketball in Putnam although not by his own choice. Tonight, another legend steps aside as Griswold says good-bye to Gary Kinel.
Kinel is leaving on his own volition, however, as he put it to me the other night, "It's time."
That's unfortunate because there are few Gary Kinels left. The type of coach that doesn't seek the headlines but just wants to coach his players and let them get the ink and the glory.
That's one of the reasons why, even though many of us including his players knew that he was stepping aside, the story of his departure didn't come out until the end of the season. In Kinel's mind, this is the players' season, not his, and he wanted his players to be the focal point- not him.
Tonight, Gary Kinel will be the focal point and it's well deserved after 33 seasons and 502 high school basketball victories. The veteran coach steps aside as his Wolverines finish up their season against Fitch.
Good luck Coach Kinel and, hopefully, we'll see you on a golf course in Florida in the near future.

If you are a high school basketball fan, you had a little treat on Monday.
President's Day at Plainfield High School is what it was for many as the Eastern Connecticut Conference held its girls basketball quarterfinals.
The tournament was rather well attended, especially the first three games, and the games didn't disappoint either.
Eighth-seeded Windham was in the game with top-seed NFA until the middle of the fourth quarter. Stonington and Fitch also played into the fourth until the Bears went on a 13-0 run to put the game out of reach.
The much anticipated third meeting between Montville and Bacon Academy was more one-sided than expected as the Indians threw a new defense at the Bobcats and walked away with a 15-point win.
As expected, even though East Lyme was the sixth-seed, the Vikings downed third-seed St. Bernard in a game between Large and Small Division teams.
MVP of the day- Heather Buck. Her 36 point, 18 rebound, 4 block performance helped Stonington escape with a win over Fitch even without head coach Paulla Solar in attendance.

You almost have to have taken calculus to figure out the seedings for the Eastern Connecticut Conference tournament.
Thankfully, it happens only twice a year.
The girls basketball tournament begins, we hope, on Friday night with the play-in round although teams won't know who they will be playing until Thursday night in some cases.
Norwich Free Academy owns the top spot followed by Stonington (after its win over Bacon Academy on Wednesday). St. Bernard has snuck into the third slot followed by Bacon. All of those teams will receive play-in byes unless Lyman beats Plainfield on Thursday. If that happens, Bacon will play host to the Bulldogs on Friday.
Montville has a lock on the fifth spot and will play host to Woodstock Friday.Windham is the No. 6 seed unless it loses to Griswold. If the Whippets win, they host Griswold again Friday. Tourtellotte will play on the road at East Lyme while Fitch takes on Wheeler in Groton.
The quarterfinals will now be played on Monday at Plainfield High School with games beginning at noon time.

Hungry.
That was how Griswold High School wrestler Brock Coutu described himself after his win in the 135-pound weight class at the Eastern Connecticut Conference wrestling championships on Saturday at Fitch High School.
Coutu was hungry not because he skipped a meal somewhere to make weight , but rather because of his loss a week ago to Pomfret School wrestler Alex LaBeef.
For that reason, Coutu took on Woodstock wrestler Henry Nickerson Saturday and went after him like the whole match was only going to last for two minutes which turned out to be the case as Coutu recorded a 16-0 win by technical fall.
"I wanted to get on the mat and get it done, no fooling around, just come out with a high intensity mentality but still not do anything crazy," Coutu said.
The Griswold senior didn't do anything crazy and recorded the fastest win of the tournament. Ledyardheavyweight John Gabordi was next with a pin 2 two minutes and 44 seconds into his match. The only other pin was recorded by Windham's Nick Marouski.