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Sports

Rams Boys Basketball Cruises Past North Haven

Howard, Jovas score 14 apiece in Cheshire's sixth straight win.

For a team that has often played from behind early in its games this season, it must have felt good for the Cheshire boys basketball team to be up by double digits after the first quarter Tuesday night against North Haven.

By the time Cheshire center Nate Howard slammed home a feed from Kevin Adams with 2:16 left in the first half to push the lead to 22 and pump up the home crowd, everyone in the building knew this game would be all Rams.

Howard scored 14 points and had 12 rebounds and four blocks as Cheshire defeated North Haven 59-38 in an SCC interdivision game at Cheshire High.

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The Rams have won six in a row and 12 of their last 14 to improve to 12-6. They've qualified for the SCC Tournament, which begins next week,  and the CIAC Class LL Tournament in March.

 "We've been on both ends," Cheshire head coach Dan Lee said. "We've been down 16 at half and now we're up 16 at half. It just comes down to keep doing what you do. In a game like that it's very easy to come out in the second half, rest on your lead and stop playing defense. Whoever we played out there, really gave that (good) effort."

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Cheshire built its 16-2 first-quarter and 38-16 first-half leads on torrid shooting. The Rams were 6-for-8 from the field in the first quarter and 15-for 23 for the half, going on 10-0 and 11-2 runs run from the end of the first to midway through the second.

"It's not something we've done very often this year," said Lee of the hot shooting. "They seemed to make the extra pass tonight. (North Haven) double-teamed us on the perimeter and our guys did a good job of passing the ball, two passes out, one for the trap and the next one for a scoring opportunity."

Cheshire's Justin Zovas scored a career-high 14 points, eight in the second quarter, with a deft shooting touch in the 12-foot range.

"They were playing a zone, so if I can hit those shots, it opens it up for big Nate down low and for everyone outside," Zovas said. "Once the first one goes in you build up confidence as you continue to make them. I felt really confident out there."

The third quarter was much of the same as the Rams opened its lead to 51-24. Most of Cheshire's starting five and its first players off the bench exited after the third.

North Haven's Spencer Oakes scored 14 points and Dominic Schioppo added 11. The Indians (4-14) have been hurt by injuries of late with one of their best players Connor McDonald out with an injury, and early in this game guard William Reaves left the game with an ankle injury after a hard foul on a drive to the basket.

"We've been struggling, we're very young, we've got a lot of players hurt," North Haven head coach Peter Civitello said. "It's tough to come back. If we don't get things exactly perfect from the get-go, we could be in for some long times.

"We're hoping that guys grow. We're trying to treat this as our first three or four games of next year because guys like Spenser and Will are only juniors and sophomores, so we're hoping they improve."

Cheshire's last two games before the postseason will be big challenges against SCC Quinnipiac champion Fairfield Prep and No. 3 Hillhouse, teams the Rams have lost to earlier in the season.

"Our goal is to just get better as a result of the game before," Lee said. "Whatever that is. We go pretty deep. We know what we get from (our starting) five, but who else, who is that other guy going to be. It seems like a different guy every night. Playing against that type of talent (Hillhouse), hopefully we can raise our game to meet theirs."

"Everyone's coming together and it's the perfect time to do it, as we head into the SCC Tournament and states," Zovas said. "I knew we could do it (come back from an 0-4 season start) but I knew it was going to be hard. We're 12-2 since. It's incredible. We all love each other on the team and that's what it's all about."

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