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04/02/2017 12:00 AMThe 2016-’17 winter season was a prosperous one for the North Branford boys’ basketball squad, which played its way into the State Tournament for the second time in three years and also qualified for the Shoreline Conference Tournament for the first time in several seasons. Head Coach Dave Parness said he was pleased with what the T-Birds achieved in the recent campaign, especially the fact that they made the conference bracket.
“[Playing in the Shoreline Conference Tournament] was our goal and it was a huge accomplishment for those guys. We hadn’t played in it for eight years or so,” Parness said. “We said if we can defend, we can play with anybody in the Shoreline. I think when we beat some teams early like Old Lyme and Westbrook, you could see that they understood we could play with anybody. Our goal was to get to the Shoreline Tournament and it was great to accomplish it.”
North Branford finished its season with an overall record of 12-11, including a victory versus Haddam-Killingworth in the Class S State Tournament. As the No. 19 seed, North Branford beat the 14th-ranked Cougars 50-36 on the road to advance to the second round.
“We head beaten them early in the year in a high-scoring game and then the second time we played them, we lost in a game that was closer to our style of play where we knew we left some baskets out there. We watched a lot of film, corrected some stuff, and came out early to get a lead. We gave it up in the third, but built another lead,” said Coach Parness said. “I thought it was impressive that these guys built a lead on the road, lost it, and kept their composure to get it back, rather than unraveling. We did the things necessary to keep it an eight- or nine-point lead late. We did all that stuff we talk about in practice. They did a great job at the end of that game.”
After they missed the playoffs last winter, the T-Birds’ turnaround yielded a prized distinction for Parness, who was named the Shoreline Conference Coach of the Year.
“It’s a great team accomplishment. I don’t look at it as a one-year thing. I think for me, it’s cool we were 12-11—not an 18-2 team that ran away with the league,” said Parness. “My peers saw what we were doing with the talent we had and that the kids bought in. For me, I think that award is the accomplishment of the last two years, creating a culture for the guys to buy into.”
Meanwhile, junior guard Brett Lequire had a dream season for North Branford in which he averaged approximately 23 points with 13 rebounds per game, while also reaching the 1,000-point milestone for his career. Lequire, who captained the team with senior Dillon Blake, was named the T-Birds’ Most Valuable Player, made the All-Shoreline Conference Team, and was an All-State First Team selection. On top of all that, Lequire was selected as the Shoreline Conference Player of the Year.
“To do it as a junior is incredible. He was our first Shoreline MVP in about 20 years,” Parness said. “For me, the most impressive thing is he scored 1,000 points in two years. For him to do it in two years, and we’re not making deep runs in the tournament, so he did it in less than 45 games, is absolutely incredible. He’s over 1,350 points already.”
Parness also presented the Desire and Dedication Award to senior Gianni Lavorgna and junior Jake Haeckel. The coach said he was quite impressed with what both athletes brought to his team this year.
“It was Gianni’s first year playing basketball and I think he averaged about 10 points per game during the second half of the year. He exceeded the expectations we had,” Parness said. “Jake is a coach on the floor at times for us. He knows the plays, knows what we’re doing, and takes charges. He puts the team above himself and does what he needs to do for us to win.”
One of the most notable aspects of the T-Birds’ season is that they accomplished so much without having that deep of a bench.
“We really only went six deep this year. After [Lequire, Lavorgna, and Haeckel], Dillon Blake was our big body in the middle. He played center and had to guard guys five inches taller than him. Our point guard was Sydney Franklin. We were hoping he’d be a 10-to-15-minute a night guy, but he played 25 to 30 minutes per game,” Parness said. “The guy off the bench was Keane Regan. He played as a sophomore and not a junior, but he came in and played wherever he was needed. He was a glue guy as far as subs go.”
Defense and rebounding were two of the big things that Parness and his coaching staff stressed to the team this season. The fact that North Branford played great in those areas allowed the T-Birds to win as much as they did.
“We always stress defense and rebounding the basketball. We look to create situations to create easy baskets. At times, we’ll struggle and need to get rebounds to make up for it,” he said. “The biggest reason we won this was because the guys bought in. We thought we would be a man-to-man team, but we were inconsistent the first few games, so we went to a zone and the kids excelled in it. It just became one of those things where, as a staff, we realized the zone made our guys more successful. We held teams to under 50 points per game, which was a major accomplishment for the guys.”
Lequire, Haeckel, and Franklin are the only players returning to next year’s team who received significant varsity minutes this season. Consequently, Coach Parness hopes his younger players come hungry next year to fill the open spots on the floor.
“We bring back those three, but after that, we have a bunch of sophomore and juniors competing for spots. We need a lot of guys have to big summers,” Parness said. “We have open spots. Ideally, we’d like to go deeper on our bench next year, so guys will have the opportunity to play if they put the time in.”