Playoffs end for Jackets after convincing first-round win

WINSTED — Before being knocked out of the class S state tournament by Kolbe Cathedral Cougars on March 10, the Gilbert boys basketball squad offered a spectacular performance at home against the Old Saybrook Rams March 8, winning 84-68 in the first round of postseason play. Austin Brochu set Gilbert up for a hasty start, winning the opening tip off to sophomore Robert Skinner, who fed Gilbert senior Elide Romero beneath the boards for the first points of the game. The Jackets maintained that early momentum and pressured the Old Saybrook Rams into coughing up a series turnovers, providing Gilbert the space to build an early lead.The Rams were able to draw a fair number of Jacket foul opportunities, but Gilbert continued to run their offense patiently and effectively, making clean, heads-up plays to score. Skinner was a remarkable force throughout the evening, and his consecutive first-quarter three-pointers heralded the beginning of an incredible effort by the young Jacket. Brochu also contributed to the early Gilbert offense by battling hard beneath the boards, helping to build a 25-14 lead by the end of the first.Skinner’s efforts continued to generate exclamations and sighs of amazement throughout the building, as he hit the 24-point mark in the second quarter. His ability to finish regardless of situation or position seemed to convince the crowd that his three-quarter-court buzzer beater would undoubtedly connect. No luck with the pre-halftime long shot, but the Jackets did hold on to a strong 43-28 lead heading into the halftime break.The Jackets looked as sharp at the start of the third as they did through the first half. Old Saybrook sparked late in the quarter, but Gilbert battled to hold the gap and continued to lead, 61-43 a the end of the third.Old Saybrook began nailing shots from the outside throughout the fourth, but Gilbert maintained their offensive pressure to keep a sizeable gap. With a firm lead in hand, Gilbert head coach Mark Douglass sat his top line to give his substitutes the chance to finish out the evening. Gilbert took the win, 84-68.Skinner’s contributions were enormous throughout the affair. He racked up a massive 36 points, 18 of which came from the outside. Brochu also had a big night, tallying 24 points, while senior Elide Romero added 15 of his own.Douglass said he was pleased by his team’s performance, but acknowledged room for improvement. “We had a chance to really put it of reach,” he said. “It is something we have worked on. It is just a matter of maturity to get us there.”On March 10, Brochu had 24 points and 15 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough as home-standing Kolbe Cathedral won 64-52 to end Gilbert’s successful 2010-11 season.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less