DIV. IV Badger rallies to beat Southington; JFK stops second-seeded Windham

Badger and Warren JFK will play each other in the district semifinal Tuesday.
By SAL MARINO
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MIDDLEFIELD -- Badger used an impressive third quarter rally to win, while Warren JFK had success at the foul line in its victory in the Division IV boys sectional basketball tournament Friday at Cardinal High School.
Badger defeated Southington 56-50 and the Eagles stopped the second-seeded Windham 69-63.
Badger (11-10) and JFK (11-11) will meet in the district semifinal Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Southington (12-10) led Badger 32-23 at halftime but couldn't maintain the advantage.
Badger came back strong in the third period, outscoring Southington 22-6, to overcome the halftime deficit and pull ahead 45-38 entering the final period.
Outscored: After trailing 36-28 midway through the third period, Badger outscored the Wildcats 17-2 to seize the lead.
"I told the kids at halftime to be more aggressive," Badger coach Bill Bogan said.
"We had 10 days off and it showed in the first half. They came out in the third period and played basketball. We gave up a lot of shots in the first half."
Nick Gilliland had a 3-point goal to spark the rally, while Josh Upshire and Brett Bell each had six points in the spell.
Derik McIntosh of Southington, who finished with 18 points, had 12 in the first three quarters. Early in the fourth period, Southington closed the gap to 48-47 and played close until two minutes remained.
"We are not real deep," Southington coach Mike Karr said. "It showed down the stretch. When McIntosh fouled out and [Lance] Fusselman got injured toward the end of the game, that really hurt us."
Fourth-seeded Badger held a 50-48 lead late and the Braves ran off six straight points to win.
Gilliland had three 3-point goals and ended with 13 points.
Warren JFK 69, Windham 63: The Eagles used the foul line to their advantage, connecting on 28-of-41 tries from the charity stripe. There were 68 fouls called in the game.
The Eagles were led by Colin Clemente with 19 points, while Chris Macali had 16 and Keith Black and Ben Shaker each had 10.
"If we come next week and give the effort we did this week, we should be all right," JFK coach John Condoleon said.
"Our defense came up big tonight. They did exactly what we wanted them to do. Our schedule helped us this year."
For the Bombers, Cedric Turner scored 18 points, while Justin Kiser had 17 more. The Eagles scored all 17 of their points in the fourth quarter from the foul line.
The score was tied 13-13 after eight minutes and JFK took a 30-26 lead into the break.
JFK out-scored Windham 10-4 to open a 40-30 lead early in the third period. Both teams scored 12 points as the third period ended, with JFK in front 52-42. Turner and Kiser each had a big 3-point goal in the span for the Bombers.
In the final period, Windham closed the gap to 68-63 with less than a minute to play before Macali ended the game with yet another free throw.
Kyle Obradovich had 12 of JFK's 31 rebounds.