Old Lyme Stuns Valley Regional for Shoreline Title

A not-so-funny thing happened to the Valley Regional Warriors on the way to their coronation as Shoreline tournament champions.

Old Lyme showed up.

Despite upsetting Hyde and Cromwell, the past two Class S champions, to get to the Shoreline final, Old Lyme was considered nothing more than sacrificial Wildcats, to be served up prior to Valley’s cutting down the nets in front of a capacity crowd Friday night in Old Saybrook.

Instead, it was Old Lyme holding the scissors following a thrilling 63-61 come-from-behind victory in overtime.

“It’s awesome,” Old Lyme coach Kirk Kaczor said of the victory. “These guys have played hard all year and they’ve been coming together as a team, and they play as a team, they work as a team. Sometimes you get a little bit lucky. You work hard and good things happen. We worked our tails off all year.”

This was supposed to be nothing more than a mere rest stop for Valley Regional (21-2) while it followed the crimson brick road it had paved with broken opponents, lopsided victories and high praise. They were, after all, winners of 17 straight games, unbeaten in conference play, had won nine games by 25 or more points, put up 101 against Portland, had only one conference game decided by less than 13 points, and are the No. 1 seed heading into the Class S tournament.

In the end, none of that mattered.

On the surface, the Wildcats (12-10) might have had no chance. Under it, they had the heart and a late season new-found confidence that enabled them to withstand a potential knockout blow in the second quarter.

With Old Lyme trailing 18-13 after the first quarter, the Warriors went on a 12-2 run to open the second. A three-pointer by sophomore Jon Luster gave Valley a 30-15 lead with 3:06 left in the half. Warrior fans were in a frenzy. The Wildcats called timeout to try and stop the bleeding.

Old Lyme managed to answer the bell, regained its composure, and scored the final six points of the half to head into the locker room down, 32-21.

Little did anyone outside the Wildcats' locker room know how critical those last few minutes were. It was enough to keep them believing.

“Down 11 at the half, they were cheering that they scored the last points,” Kaczor said. “They got in the locker room and they were ready to go. They were like, ‘All right, we’re right with them now. We took their best shot and now we got to go get ‘em.’”

That’s just what they did.

Nick Carlson got Old Lyme off on the right track in the third quarter with a steal and a layup to make the score 32-23. He did it again moments later to make it 34-25. Then it became the George Logan show.

Down 10, consecutive threes by Logan cut the deficit to 36-32 with 3:57 left. The sophomore added two free throws then converted a layup off a steal. In the blink of an eye, the score was tied at 36.

Kyle Connor’s three-pointer gave Valley a little breathing room, but when the buzzer sounded, the Warriors were clinging to a 41-40 lead entering the fourth.

Valley got the lead back up to 45-40, but Old Lyme wouldn’t go away.

“Guys made plays when they needed to,” Kaczor said.

A 12-footer in the lane by Andrew Tyrol got the Wildcats within 45-42. Mitchell King’s putback of his own miss made it 47-42. Two free throws by Logan got the Wildcats within three again before Logan, following a huge offensive rebound by Tyrol, hit another three to tie the score. The back-and-forth affair continued from there, when, with 1:07 remaining in regulation and Valley up 55-53, King (18 points) went to the line for a one-and-one. He missed the front end, but Old Lyme could not capitalize.

With 40 seconds left, it was Mason King’s turn to try and put the Warriors up by two possessions, but he only made 1 of 2 from the line and the Wildcats had another chance. They wasted little time cashing in. Logan got the ball beyond the arc at the top of the key and nailed a long three – his sixth three of the game -  to tie the score and send it into overtime.

“George Logan was absolutely huge tonight,” Kaczor said of his sophomore.

Mitchell King hit two free throws to put Valley on top 58-57 before Carlson (15 points) hit two of his own, then scored using a dazzling up-and-under move on a drive into the lane to give Old Lyme a 61-58 lead. Logan (28 points) made it 63-58 with two free throws before Mike Marshall kept the Warriors' fading hopes alive with a three with 19 seconds left.

Jake Turkowski’s two missed free throws – Old Lyme was 10 of 19 from the line  - gave Valley one last chance to tie or win, but Connor’s shot hit the front side of the rim and the celebration was on as Old Lyme fans stormed the court.

“We know they’re excellent and we knew things had to break right for us and they did,” said Kaczor, whose team defeated the top three Shoreline teams to win the title.

For Valley, the loss won’t affect its No. 1 seeding in the state tournament, just its psyche, perhaps. As for Old Lyme, they become as formidable a 22 seed as a team can be. First up for them in the state tournament is Hale-Ray in East Haddam on Tuesday. The Warriors have a bye.