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Hillhouse's #1 Germone Barnes looks to take a shot as West Haven's #1 Brandon Bellamy defends during a CIAC high school boys basketball game at Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven, Conn., Monday, January 19, 2026. (Dave Zajac/Hearst Connecticut Media)
Day one of the CIAC boys basketball tournaments is complete. Let's take a look at what happened around Connecticut:
Favorites Hold Serve
All 16 lower-seeded teams in Division II playing at home Friday night won. There were six of them that won by single digits.
No. 31 Hand, which had to beat Wilbur Cross in a play-in game Wednesday, was within two points of Trumbull with under a minute remaining. The second-seeded Eagles hung on 59-54. You may remember Trumbull advanced to the Division II semifinals last season as the No. 20 seed.
A pair of SCC teams, Hillhouse and Xavier, won by seven (60-53) and five (74-69) points, respectively, versus FCIAC teams McMahon and Fairfield Warde. Hall slipped past Cheney Tech by three (49-46), Fitch, the ECC Division I champion, held off Waterbury Career 58-54 while another ECC Division I team, Norwich Free Academy, lost to New Canaan 60-52.
Amity Does It Again
There must be something about long road trips in the first round that really works for Amity.
For the third straight season, Amity won an opening-round Division III road game as a 20-something seed. The No. 24 Spartans made the long trek to Storrs and beat E.O. Smith 87-74.
It was the only Division III game Friday, with all others being played Saturday. Michael Anderson led Amity with 23 points, while Miles Spodick added 21.
Two years ago, No. 23 Amity won at No. 10 Griswold 66-51. Last March, the 25th-seeded Spartans won at No. 8 Masuk 70-54 in a Division III opener.
Amity will likely have an even longer road trip Tuesday night. No. 8 Killingly hosts No. 25 Branford. If Branford pulls the upset, then Amity would host the All-SCC second-round game.
Three Cheers for Patch
Sometimes, the best moments are ones that go unplanned.
No. 5 Platt was on the verge of winning its Division II home game 90-61 against Wilton. With eight seconds left, Wilton coach Joel Geriak put in Patrick Angerame, also known as Patch. Angerame, who has cerebral palsy, was given the opportunity to score the game's final basket.
"I told (Platt) with eight seconds left, 'I'm putting him in,'" Geriak said. "They chose to let him get the shots up. Very gracious."
Naturally, the crowd cheered the final basket in the final game of Patch's basketball career.
"Patrick was very thrilled, very excited to score our last points of the season. He was smiling the entire time after the game," Geriak said.
Milestones and 46-Point Output
There were two coaching milestones from the CCC on Friday: Newington coach Scot Wenzel claimed his 300th win as the Nor-Easters defeated Conard, and Hall coach Bryan Moretti earned his 200th victory in a win over Cheney Tech. Both were Division II contests.
Hillhouse's Germone Barnes scored his 1,000th career point in a victory over Brien McMahon in Division II.
St. Paul's Sean McMahon scored 46 points in St. Paul's 75-50 win against Suffield in Division IV.
This article originally published at What we learned on Day 1 of the CIAC boys basketball tournaments: Top seeds move on.
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