Sports blog: Warrior Nation
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NEW CANAAN -- The Wilton 5th grade boys, sponsored by Pinocchio Pizza, had already had themselves one heck of a season going into last Saturday nights championship game.

They were co-champions of the Fairfield County Basketball League with a record of 8-1. Overall, the Warriors had 20 wins against only three losses. They had cruised through the early rounds of the playoffs and were set to face a Greenwich team they had already played, and defeated, twice this season.

By anyone's measurement, the season had already been a resounding success.

The team then capped off its season with the FCBL 5th Grade Tournament championship, as well, defeating Greenwich for a third time by a 38-27 score.

In the boys skills competition, each team nominated one player from their team to represent them in three individual contests against their league rivals: free throw shooting, speed dribble, and one-on-one.

Billy Black made a strong showing for Wilton earlier in the afternoon, canning 6 of 10 from the charity stripe. Then it was Kieran McGovern in the speed dribble, blazing his way to easily advance to the finals, only to later learn he had inadvertently failed to cross one of the lines.

With the gym dominated by boisterous young Wilton fans and his cheering teammates, the stage was set for Jack Williams in the one-on-one contest. After battling 13 other boys for the better part of forty minutes, Jack drained a deep three, cemented the victory, and was mobbed on court by his teammates in their first of two big celebrations.

Celebration concluded, it was now time to re-focus and for the Warriors to realize they still had not claimed the main prize for which they had all worked so hard. Fortunately for Wilton, they would ride the wave of that momentum into the first quarter against the Greenwich Flames and jump out to an early 12-4 lead.

Their trademark full-court press and relentless trapping was once again the difference in the early going.

"Offense is for show, defense is for dough" quipped Coach Williams after the game. But Greenwich did not find Wilton's suffocating pressure to be any laughing matter.

To the Flames, it must have seemed as if they were playing 5-on-6. McGovern bounced back from his earlier disappointment to snatch five steals on the game to go along with eight points. His backcourt mate, Drew Connolly, would follow suite with four thefts of his own and 12 points (10 of those in the first half). Sharpshooter Billy Black played his usual strong all-around game with a bucket, two rebounds, and an assist.

Thanks to their intense pressure and crisp passing, the Warriors would go into halftime, enjoying a comfortable 24-8 lead, halfway to a championship.

However, the undersized Warriors had been outrebounded all season, and they would need to take care of the paint in the second half in order to secure the championship. Jack Williams (12 boards, 12 points), Steffen Nobles (4 rebounds), Sean Breslin (5 rebounds), and Jack Wood (4 rebounds) were more than up to the challenge.

The Wilton big men secured the inside and played solid defense which forced Greenwich to continue to shoot a very low percentage in the second half. Super-subs Liam Rance (1 steal, 1 assist) and Andrew West (2 points, 1 steal) would once again provide a spark off the bench, along with another sparking floor game from Max Weisman (2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist).

While Coach Williams and Coach Dineen fretted that the time could not run off the clock quick enough, the outcome of the game had already been decided. Wilton would coast to the 38-27 victory and the Wilton boys would celebrate on-court for their second time that evening.

"This was just a special group of boys" remarked Coach Williams after the dust had settled. "They bought into the concept early on this season that the difference in these games would be our defensive intensity. I am extremely proud of these kids and what they accomplished this year."

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