Career has returned to the state semifinals with an impressive 60-53 win over Trinity Catholic. It was a rematch of last year's Class M final, won by Trinity.
But that was never truly a motivating factor Friday, according to head coach Larry Kelley. Never discussed. Didn't matter: Career played some serious zone defense, with a some full-court pressure mixed in, to take down a talented team in Trinity but also a team that got into serious foul trouble.
Center Pascal Chukwu, who was a defensive presence in last year's final as a freshman, fouled out with just six points. He spent half the game on the bench and Career attacked the basket. Jason Boswell, the Division I stud who transferred from St. Patrick, scored about as quiet a 17 points as you can.
Trinity was able to hand in, but never could wrestle the lead from Career, which will now take on Wilby in the semifinals likely at CCSU Tuesday.
Wilby started off great, struggled in the second half of the season and didn't even reach the finals of the NVL tournament. But Wilby had a very impressive win over Bassick in the quarterfinals. Read Joe Palladino of the Waterbury Republican-American's account of the game.
Wilby is going to come right at Career. How will the Panthers handle them defensively? It should be al all-out battle to determine who gets to the Mohegan Sun next weekend.

The other area schools were eliminated in L: Branford at Farmington and Stratford at Northwest Catholic despite 42 points from Bernard Brantley. And he's back for Stratford next season. The Farmington-NWC game should go to the Floyd Little Athletic Center. Those are the two sites used for Class LL and L and Career has played several home games at Floyd Little, so the Panthers can't play there.

But after two quarterfinal-round home games were made neutral site contests for Monday (see my earlier posts from Friday), the Career game just might be going elsewhere.