
Granby’s Carmelo Ronan drives to the basket during the championship game of the Valley vs. The Hills Holiday Tournament Monday night in Farmington.
FARMINGTON, Dec. 30, 2024 – In March 2022, the Granby Memorial boys basketball team won 21 games and played for a state championship against Bloomfield in the CIAC Division IV final.
In the next two seasons, the Bears won three and 10 games, respectively. “The last few years have been a little lean for us,” Granby head coach Wally Hansen said.
On Monday night, the Bears showed some guts in the championship game of The Valley vs. The Hills Holiday Tournament at Farmington.
Granby erased a 15-point deficit and held Lewis Mills to just 11 points in the second half to win the tournament championship with a 49-45 victory. Jake Teclaw had a team-high 20 points and a pair of three-point shots to lead Granby and earn tournament MVP honors.
Farmington (2-3) won the consolation game with a 62-55 win over Lakeview High from Litchfield, led by Angelo Maccarone, who sank a tournament record 30 points in the victory.
Last March, Lewis Mills played in the CIAC Division III final and began Monday night’s game with a flurry of three-point shots. Behind 14 points from Gavin Daly and 10 points from Tommy Dinunzio, the Spartans grabbed a 15-point lead, 26-11, with 4:17 left in the second quarter.
Mills (2-3) had an 11-point lead at the half, 32-21.
In the third quarter, Granby (4-1) made life difficult for Mills. They played in-your-face defense. They pulled down rebounds. They made steals and forced turnovers.
“Defensively, we were very good,” Hansen said. “We tried to get them out of their rhythm of their offense. Lewis Mills is really well coached. We tried to disrupt everything they were trying to do.”
Lewis Mills scored just two points in the fourth quarter while the Bears scored 19 points to take a 40-34 lead after three quarters.
“We were fighting,” Hansen said. “We started to fight in that third quarter. I love a team that scraps and claws and fights. This is a team that does all of those things. They could have stepped on our throat and the game would have been over.”
Trailing by 11, Granby got a steal and a basket from Teclaw. After another turnover, Ryder Brunk scored and then Teclaw took the ball to the basket to cut the lead to four, 32-28. Stone Tran hit a baseline jumper and Oliver Douglas had a hook shot in the lane to tie the game at 32-32.
Douglas sank a pair of free throws and then sank a three-pointer to extend the lead to five, 37-32.
“In the second half, we knew we had to play more physical defense to stop their two main scorers (Daly and Dinunzio) and we had to get rebounds,” Teclaw said. “We knew coming in it would be a good challenge and we were ready to face it.”
Granby led by as many as eight points early in the fourth quarter before Lewis Mills got back in the game.
Dinunzio cut the lead to four with a one-handed jump shot from the top of the key with 1:42 remaining in the game, 46-42. The Spartans forced a Granby turnover but at the other end of the floor, it was Granby that pulled down the offensive rebound after a miss by the Spartans.
With under a minute remaining, Mills’ Logan Carrano got a steal but the Spartans missed the shot and Granby controlled the rebound. After a timeout, Granby’s Brady Liss found Roman streaking toward the basket. He grabbed the ball and drove to the basket to extend the lead to six, 48-42 with 39.3 seconds remaining.
Carrano drained a quick three-point shot with 30.1 seconds to cut the Granby lead to three, 48-45 but that is as close as the Spartans would get.
Dinunzio finished with a game-high 21 points for Lewis Mills while Daly finished with 17, including just three points in the second half.
Mills returns to action on Friday night when they travel to Bloomfield to take on the Warhawks at 6:30 p.m. Granby resumes play in the NCCC and will host East Windsor on Friday.
Farmington had a 14-point lead at halftime before running into offensive issues in the second half. The River Hawks scored just nine points in each of the third and fourth quarters but had enough to hold off Lakeview.
Lakeview rallied in the second half and had cut the lead to three points, 55-52 with 3:03 remaining. But Maccarone drove to the basket with 1:25 remaining, hit the basket and got fouled. He sank the free throw to extend the lead to six points.
Granby 49, Lewis Mills 45
At Farmington
Granby (49) Stone Tran 4-0-8, Carmelo Roman 0-3-3, Ryder Brunk 2-0-4, Oliver Douglas 4-2-11, Brady Liss 0-0-0, Will Auer 1-0-3, Jake Teclaw 7-4-20. Totals 18-9
Lewis Mills (45) Gavin Daly 6-1-17, Anthony D’Iorio 0-0-0, Will Green 1-0-2, Logan Carrano 1-0-3, Tommy Dinunzio 9-3-21, Chad Edmond 0-0-0, Gage Kosak 0-0-0, Ethan Braddock 1-0-2, Totals 18-4-45
Granby (4-1) 7 14 19 9 — 49
Lewis Mills (2-3) 16 16 2 9 — 45
Three-point goals: Douglas (G), Auer (G), Teclaw (G) 2, Daly (LM) 4
NOTE: Teclaw, Tran and Dinunzio were named to the All-Tournament team along with Lakeview’s Jack Gollow and Farmington’s Angelo Maccarone. Teclaw was named the tournament MVP.
Farmington 62, Lakeview 55
At Farmington
Lakeview (55) Max Guma 1-0-3, D.J. Willenbrock 0-0-0, Quinn Coffey 2-2-7, Jack Gollow 7-7-23, Cole Karpicki 1-2-5, Connor Aldrich 0-0-0, Patrick Weaving 7-3-17, Joe Sepples 0-0-0. Totals 18 14 55
Farmington (62) Chase Clay 3-0-8, Alex Walton 0-0-0, Xzavior Clark 0-0-0, Tyler Thompson 5-4-15, Michael LeBouthiller 2-0-6, Jake Tomkiewicz 0-1-1, Angelo Maccarone 8-12-30, Harry Hawkins 1-0-2. Totals 19 17-25 62
Lakeville (1-4) 10 17 18 10 — 55
Farmington (2-3) 22 19 9 9 — 62
Three-point goals: Coffey (L), Gollow (L) 2, Karpicki (L), Clay (F) 2, Thompson (F), LeBouthiller (F) 2, Maccarone (F) 2
Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of The Collinsville Press. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 40 years. He was inducted into the New England High School Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2018.


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