Medeiros and Warriors back in Class S finals for third consecutive season

Canton High girls basketball coach Brian Medeiros and the Warriors will be playing for the state title Saturday morning.

CANTON, March 17 – Wallingford’s Brian Medeiros has already made some history at Canton High. He has led the girls basketball team into the state championship game for the third consecutive year.

It’s an impressive feat considering that the boys and girls basketball teams had combined to make just five appearances in the finals since the Warriors starting playing basketball in Canton in the early 1920s.

No. 3 Canton (22-4) faces No. 5 Thomaston (23-4) for the third straight season in the Class S championship game Saturday morning at 10 a.m. at the Mohegan Sun Arena. The Warriors are the defending champions having won their first-ever state title a year ago. The Bears, who were stunned by the defeat, won the Class S title in 2015. And they are making their fifth consecutive trip to the finals.

“You ask for pressure defense, they give you pressure defense. You ask them to run the floor and they run the floor. They’re adaptable. We trust each other, we have fun and they don’t want to disappoint you,” Medeiros told Ken Lipshez of the Meriden Record Journal earlier this week.

Read about Ken’s discussion with Medeiros in the Record Journal.

2017 Class S championship game
Who: Canton (22-4) vs. Thomaston (23-4)
When: Saturday, 10 a.m.
TV: NFHSNetwork.com (Subscription required)
Coaches: Canton – Brian Medeiros; Thomaston – Bob McMahon
Last meeting: Canton 64-51, 2016 Class S championship game
Finals history: Canton 1-3, Thomaston 3-4
Top players: Canton – Emily Briggs (21.7 ppg); Abbe Skinner (6.3 ppg), Abby Charron, Belle Magna, Sarah Bowman; Thomaston – Casey Carangelo (23.3 ppg), Julia Quinn (14.6 ppg), Alexa Milius (6.3 ppg), Morgan Betti (5.3 ppg), Camryn Capaldo (4.1 ppg)
Of note: After losing three starters from last year’s championship team, Canton had a rough 2-2 start before winning 15 straight including wins over Kolbe Cathedral, 59-54, Avon and Notre Dame-Fairfield, 52-37. The Warriors stumbled by losing to East Windsor twice in a week including the NCCC semifinal. But Canton has won four in a row. … Thomaston is led by Carangelo, who is the all-time leading scorer in school history (1,584 points). The Bears shared the Berkshire League championship with Housatonic and then came back to beat the Mountaineers in the BL Tournament final. Thomaston has won 14 in a row.  … The Bears beat Canton in the 2015 Class S title game, 52-50.