New London stops NFA, 61-54

It was the type of game that New London sophomore Torin Childs-Harris was used to playing at his former high school in Virginia Beach. Va.
There are 12 schools within that city’s limits, according to Harris, which produced heated rivalries played in front of packed houses in games that came down to the wire.
Harris hasn’t had a chance to experience that much this season at New London where, outside of the first month of the season when they played Northwest Catholic, Manchester and Hartford Public, the games have generally been one-sided for the No. 4 team in the state.
That was until Friday night when the Whalers invaded Alumni Hall in Norwich and had a battle with their storied rival, NFA, and won their 18th-consecutive game, 61-54.
The setting was more to Harris’ liking with 1,200 fans packed inside of Alumni Hall as fans were turned away during halftime of the junior varsity game.
“The last big game was Hartford Public and this game felt good,” Harris said. “The atmosphere was great. It reminded me of Virginia and I just had to turn it up.”
The Whalers, who finished the season 19-1, have generally had it easy in their ECC Small Division schedule in between their games with Hartford Public on Dec. 29 and NFA.
“I said this before: I don’t particularly care for this league with the expansion; I like the old ECC,” New London coach Craig Parker said. “It’s not there, so we play who we play.
The scarcity of close contests hasn’t dulled the Whalers sharpness, however, as they put NFA behind quickly thanks in part to the talents of freshman Kris Dunn.
The Whalers guard scored seven first-quarter points and had three steals to help New London build a 19-10 lead after one.
“I sparked out a little bit and that just got other people involved and they started doing their thing,” said Dunn, who finished with a team-high 18 points.
New London followed that up with seven straight points to open the second quarter and the NFA faithful grew a little quiet as the Wildcats suddenly trailed, 25-10. Sharif Brown helped bring the crowd back a bit when he scored seven of his 12 points, including a three-point play in the final minute of the first half to bring NFA back to within eight, 31-23.
The Wildcats (17-3) whittled the New London lead down to five in the third quarter, but nine points from Dunn and Harris brought it back to as many as 13 before the Whalers settled for a 10-point lead, 45-35, going into the final quarter.
Despite using just six players much of the second half, NFA had one last gasp left in it. Brown opened the fourth with a strong drive to the basket for two. Henry Cordero stole the in-bounds pass, but was whistled for a foul. Undaunted, the Wildcat guard picked the Whalers’ pocket again and went in for a fast-break bucket to make it 45-39. That set up the loudest roar of the night when Mike Mailhot (20 points) drained a 3-pointer with 6:35 to play to make it a three-point game.
“When I heard that crowd roaring, our kids got some energy from that, but they made plays,” NFA coach Neal Curland said.
This time it was the sophomore Harris that stepped up his game as he scored the next four points, two on a drive to the basket and two from the charity stripe.
“We held them at bay and we got it back,” Parker said. “(Harris) made two big foul shots for us, settled us down a little bit, and we were able to increase the lead from there.”
The Whalers scored six of the next eight points to open the 11-point advantage and made six-of-eight free throws in the final 1:05 to send the Wildcats to their first loss in eight games.
“New London is very good and they played well, they shot 50 percent from the floor in the first half,” Curland said. “When you have quicks like that who can get by you and they can also hit outside shots — you kind of have to pick your poison. Their young guards, veteran guards and big kids all played well.”