"The guys were disappointed, upset and feeling a little sorry for themselves," Canton coach Eric Deegan said. "We just worked on defense and conditioning (in practice). We wanted to stay within our offense and get more passes."
The Warriors (20-4) are smiling now after two straight dominant victories that lifted No. 3 Canton into the Class S semifinals for the first time since 1982. The Warriors faced No. 10 Cromwell (16-6) on Wednesday in New Britain.
Canton began the tournament with a relatively easy 72-43 second round victory over No. 14 Grasso Tech at home. Canton allowed just 10 points in the first half and 22 points through three quarters.
It is believed to be the largest margin of victory for Canton (29 points) in a CIAC tournament game, topping a 24-point margin of victory in the 1982 Class S quarterfinals against Stafford.
Canton earned a spot in the semifinals with an 83-58 win over No. 11 Wheeler-North Stonington at East Catholic High on Monday. Guard Dwayne Rivers was spectacular with a game-high 23 points, seven rebounds and five assists. His athletic moves and drives to the basket opened up the game for Canton, which raced out to early leads of 10-2 and 12-4.
Jimmy Purcell tied a career-high with 12 points, while sixth- man Brian McLellan continued his strong play off the bench with 12 points and seven rebounds. Joey Dionne added 13 points and five assists.
"We played really strong from the start and brought the pressure to them, and that really made a difference early," Deegan said. "We were real aggressive to start the game early."
The 83 points is one point shy of the school record for most points scored in a CIAC tournament game. The Warriors had 84 in a 84-71 win over Portland in the 1984 Class S quarterfinals.
Rivers had eight of Canton's first 14 points. He sank two foul shots after ripping down a rebound and got fouled. After Getz stole the ball, Rivers drove in for a layup. Rivers took a nice feed inside from Dionne for another two points and scored on a drive between two defenders in the lane.
"The reports I had on Canton didn't do him justice,"Wheeler coach Robert Oliver said. "He's a great player."
Wheeler (16-9) cut the Canton lead to seven on a buzzer-beating layup to end the second quarter. But Canton opened the second quarter with 12 straight points to blow open the game. Rivers had seven points in that run, hitting an open jumper, picking up a loose ball and driving to the basket and draining a three-point shot.
"They came out like every team should," Wheeler's David Renski said. "Come at you hard and smack you in the mouth." Rivers wasn't the only star. McLellan, who averaged 6.3 points in the regular season, had 12 points for the second straight game. Matt Zukowski had sevenpoints in the paint, as well. Canton led by as many as 25 points.
"We got contributions from a lot of guys, which really helped," Deegan said.
Against Grasso Tech (13-11), Canton had plenty of help. Dionne hit five of his first six shots from the floor and had 12 points. Getz had 10 points, while Matt Zukowski had two points and 10 rebounds. McLellan's 12 points represented his highest scoring performance since game nine in early January.
"I think they were much more focused than we were against Granby," Deegan said.
The semifinal game against Cromwell was Canton's sixth semifinal appearance in its history. The last time Canton played in the championship game was in 1981 when they lost to Bacon Academy. Canton did win the Class S title in 1978 over Cromwell and the Class C title 80 years ago in 1927 when the team beat Deep River High.
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