Sports

Split Decision: New Canaan Boys Basketball Wins, Girls Fall to Darien

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New Canaan sophomore Nick Crovatto drained a pair of clutch free throws with less than a minute left to break a 43-43 tie and help lift the Rams to a 46-43 win over the Blue Wave Monday night at Darien High School. The Rams were led by junior Tyler Sweeney who scored 21 points, 17 of which came in an exhilarating second half that saw multiple lead changes and swings of momentum. “I’m really proud because things weren’t going our way,” New Canaan head coach Mike Evans said. “We created our own momentum and got it done.”

Darien started the game strong, building an 11-9 lead in the first quarter. Junior two-guard Jackson Ryan hit two three-pointers for six of his team-high 15 points on the night to help the Wave to their early advantage.

Sports

New Canaan Boys Basketball Falls to McMahon 68-55

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For one quarter on Friday night, you could not have asked for much more out of the New Canaan High School boys basketball team. Tied at 13 apiece with an undefeated, heavily favored McMahon team and hampered by the loss of senior co-captain Kyle Smith to a shoulder injury, the Rams were doing almost everything right—eventually building a four-point lead midway through the second quarter in front of a big home crowd. Unfortunately for New Canaan, the Rams were unable to consistently sustain that level of play for the rest of the game. The Senators took advantage of New Canaan turnovers and missed opportunities, turning missed shots and steals into easy layups at the other end of the court and eventually pulling away with a 68-55 win. “Turnovers are just killing us,” New Canaan head coach Mike Evans told NewCanaanite.com.

Sports

Ready to Rebound: 2015-16 New Canaan Rams Boys Basketball Preview

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It might be difficult for many to imagine, but it wasn’t too long ago that New Canaan was a “basketball town.” Although the Rams have not won a state title since 1962, hardcourt tradition has deep roots here in town, going back to the Loren Keyes-coached teams of the 1930’s, through the golden Wilky Gilmore and Gary Liberatore years of the late 50’s and early 60’s on up to the Don Usher era of the 70’s and 80’s. And there might not be anyone here in town who is more aware of that tradition—or more qualified to restore it—than current Rams head coach Mike Evans. “We have seven state championships, but no one knows that,” Evans told NewCanaanite.com. “We’re fifth all-time in Connecticut.”

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Scroll through the gallery above to view five new signs and awnings that soon will appear in downtown New Canaan, following approval Tuesday night by the Planning & Zoning Commission. ***

“I’m for toilet equality.”—That’s what Town Hall Building Committee member Kathleen Corbet had to say about a matter that came to the forefront in the weeks after Town Hall reopened following an $18 million renovation and expansion. The architects on the project created two water closets but no urinals in the men’s rooms, citing space and compliance issues. For the record, fellow committee member Neil Budnick said: “I don’t see what the big deal is.”

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A mixed-breed dog struck by a car near the intersection of Oenoke Ridge and Country Club Roads last Wednesday around 2:15 p.m. appears to be faring OK after the animal was brought to Cornell Veterinary Hospital in Stamford. ***

This week, 31 New Canaan kids attended a basketball camp in Stroudsburg, Pa.

News

Full Court Peace: NCHS Basketball Coach Unites Kids, Communities through Hoops

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If Mike Evans had an epiphany—if there’s a single moment that gave rise to the nonprofit organization he founded in 2006—it likely arrived moments after he met the Dalai Lama as a semi-pro basketball player in Northern Ireland. Working at a hoops clinic that had brought together very young children from different backgrounds there, Evans shook hands with the Buddhist leader during the latter’s world peace tour in Belfast, and moments later, two girls—one Protestant, the other Catholic—got into a fight. “They whisked the girls away,” Evans recalled on a recent morning. “The reconciliation was not happening at home or in the classroom for these kids. You get the toughest kids, and at 15 years old they’re on the brink of being a productive citizen or joining the IRA [Irish Republican Army] or UDA [Ulster Defence Association].”

Following the incident, Evans—a 2001 Weston High School graduate and all-state basketball player who would go on to earn a bachelor’s degree in writing at Hamilton College (where he set several scoring records) and master’s in education from Harvard—reflected on something that had happened to him as a child growing up in Fairfield County.