Windsor Boys Avenge Early Season Loss With 11th Straight Win

Two winning streaks collided Thursday night in a pivotal CCC North boys basketball matchup. So only one team was going to leave the Windsor High School gym still riding high.

Windsor’s relentless pressure on defense was the dominant force as Glastonbury’s five-game unbeaten streak crashed in a 77-54 win for Windsor, the Warriors’ 11th straight victory. This allowed them to avenge a 63-60 loss to Glastonbury on Dec. 18.

Mike Fraylon, who came off the bench, and Egerton Anderson each scored 16 points to lead Windsor (12-1). Nico Donato had a game-high 25 points for the Tomahawks (12-3). Windsor improved to 7-1 in the division and 10-1 in the conference. Glastonbury dropped to 7-3 in the CCC North and to 10-3 overall in the CCC.

“Everyone was going for the hype the first time we played them,” said Windsor point guard Garey Allen, who ignited the Warriors’ press and directed their offense with precision. “We were selfish then and didn’t play as a team.

“Tonight, we shared the ball and played good defense.”

Allen’s description of “good” might not have paid proper homage to their defensive effort.

Windsor built a 40-26 halftime lead, after opening a 21-14 advantage by the end of the first quarter. Their pesky defense didn’t unravel the Tomahawks. But in the second half, Windsor’s pressure knocked their offense completely out of sync. Nearly every possession was a struggle to get off a shot.

“We only had six turnovers at the half,” said Glastonbury coach Jim Vaughan. “If you had told me before the game that we would have had just six turnovers at halftime, I would have guessed we’d have been up seven or eight points.

“They shot lights out for awhile there. We handled the ball better in the first half than we did in our first game against them. We pride ourselves on our defense but it was non-existent in the first half.”

The 77 points is the most allowed by Glastonbury in 2010-11.

Quick ball movement and wise decisions in Windsor’s shot selection threw Glastonbury’s defense off balance in the first half. In the second half, the Tomahawks’ defense was at a disadvantage because of the Warriors’ slick transition offense from their productive full-court press.

The Warriors’ offense in the second half was a series of easy baskets, quick points off their steals. Most of their offense was uncontested layups, fueled by the press, or passes to wide-open players from two-on-ones following Glastonbury turnovers.

“That’s what we want to do. That makes it easy,” said Windsor coach Ken Smith. “We made good shots the whole game. We had a good start. We were more focused this time against them. Everybody was on point. I had no complaints. It just goes to show that when we come to play and do the right things, good things will happen.”

The Windsor win was punctuated by Anderson’s dunk with 2:35 remaining, which made it 77-46 and closed out the Warriors’ scoring.

Windsor was 12-for-14 (85.7 percent) from the foul line. Glastonbury was 9 of 17 for 52.9 percent.

Jason Katz, a reserve, had nine points, the second highest total for the Tomahawks, and Jack Sellew added eight points. Scott Sill had nine points for the Warriors, seven of which came in the first half off the bench, and Greg Andrade, a starter, had eight.