Hillhouse advanced to its third Class LL state championship in four years with a win over Xavier in the semifinals.

The Academics will face fellow SCC team Fairfield Prep for the fourth time this season in the final, likely Saturday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena. Mike Cardillo of the Connecticut Post has the account of Prep's win over East Hartford.

It was a defensive struggle - or bad offense, take your pick - Tuesday night at TD Bank.

Hillhouse took the title 53-47 in overtime over Fairfield Prep. It was the sixth title for the Academics, tying them with Wilbur Cross.

The Academics trailed the entire fourth quarter until Andre Anderson's driving layup tied the game at 39-39.

Then Hillhouse really turned up the defense...blocking two shots on Prep's final possession to force overtime.

In the four-minute extra session, Hillhouse forced seven turnovers (26 overall). Raiquan Clark was the star, scoring 15 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Hillhouse held 7-foot center Paschal Chukwu without a field goal. Chukwu finished with eight points,20 rebounds, and 10 blocks. He will be a force in the Class LL state tournament.

What will get lost in the title will be Hilllhouse's own subpar offense: 27 percent overall (17 of 63), including just 2 of 20 from 3-point range. Similar shooting numbers three years ago led North Haven to a stunning upset over the Academics.

So the offense will have to be better than that if Hillhouse wants to return to the Mohegan Sun next month for the Class LL championship final. The only way Hillhouse could see Prep for a fourth time would be at the Sun in the final.

It would be surprising if neither of these teams got there.

So Fairfield Prep coach Leo Redgate did something I've never seen happen: play his substitutes in a tournament semifinal game for nearly a quarter. It almost cost the Jesuits.
Prep was down 15-0 before Paschal Chukwu, Ryan Murphy and Tom Nolan re-entered the game with 1:23 left in the first quarter; Prep was down to Wilbur Cross 17-1 at the end of the quarter.
Then Prep made its slow climb to what ended up being a 68-59 win and a spot in tonight's SCC championship game against Hillhouse featuring the best two teams in the league all year long and the top two teams in the Register Top 10 poll.
So did Leo Redgate do the right thing? He did by those seniors who obviously mean a lot to him to play them in such a big spot. He would've been second-guessed by everyone from now until the end of time - not that he cares - if Prep lost.
"Even if we lost the game, I don;t think it would have been the most horrible thing to happen to the Fairfield Prep basketball program," he said. "I would go to the mat with any of these guys and if we lost because of it, then so be it. If they are going to fire me, they can fire me."
And since he said he wasn't trying to discipline the trio of starters - he said as much after the game - then I guess we have to take him at his word. But he indirectly took a shot at the SCC tournament.
Because by pulling off this stunt, he basically is using the league tournament as a practice for the state tournament. Most coaches would tell you the same thing, that the state tournament carries more weight than the league tournament, and they would all be correct.
Would Redgate do this in the Class LL tournament? I doubt it. He knows that loss would be his last for the season. By doing it in this tournament, he still has the bigger one ahead of him.
So, in my opinion, doing what he did not only was a nice thing to do for those seniors, it also belittled the importance of the SCC tournament. You can make the argument he made a mockery of it.
I wonder what others are thinking today about it. Let me hear from you (jmorelli@nhregister.com, @nhrJoeMorelli on Twitter).

But this reflects even worse on Cross. The Jesuits outplayed the Governors, but those who were there will not only remember Redgate starting his subs for almost seven minutes, but also how Cross couldn't make Prep pay for it.
Josh Fleming did all he could to get Cross over the top - he finished with a game-high 33 points. But no one else had more than 11. And the Governors failed to impose their collective will on what is a much better basketball team than Cross is.
Yes the game was called tightly by the veteran group of officials Pat Paulson, Mike Gambardella and Mike Scanlon. And it's clear Cross coach Kevin Walton was frustrated with how it was officiated.
“I think our kids made enough plays to win this game, and that is where the game should be decided, with the kids," Walton said afterwards.
But the officials didn't shoot 10 of 22 from the line - Cross did. And the refs didn't let Nolan and Murphy cut down the lane for multiple baskets in the second half, either.

This was one of the more bizarre games - and exciting for a lot of reasons - I have ever seen in 20 years of covering high school sports. I wonder what the SCC championship game will bring.

No. 1 Hillhouse hosts No. 2 Fairfield Prep tonight at 6 at the Floyd Little Athletic Center.

Here is a brief preview of tonight's action.

The latest Top 10 poll came out on Monday.

How did the first game turn out? Hillhouse won 59-44 at Alumni Hall.

Here is Connecticut's roster for the JCC Schoolboy Classic on April 21 in Bridgeport.

Lucas Hausman of Hopkins, James Jennings from St. Joseph, Zach Lewis from Northwest Catholic, Nolan Long from Waterford, Billy McDonald from North Haven, John Papale from Choate, Darren Payen from Hamden Hall, Trachone Preston from Enfield, Terry Tarpey from Fairfield Prep, Demetrius Thomas from Bassick and Chris Walters from Westhill.

The team will be coached by Vito Montelli, who just completed his 50th season at St. Joseph.

The Southern Connecticut Conference division races won't be determined Friday but in essence, some of them will be if certain results happen.

Start with the SCC Quinnipiac. Fairfield Prep takes its five-game winning streak to Middletown for a rematch with Xavier, which dealt Prep its last loss. Xavier is fighting for a state tournament berth after a slow start. If Xavier wins, it goes a game up over Prep with two left, but in essence, Xavier would have to lose both games to not be the recognized division champ and the higher seed in the league tournament even if the teams finish in a dead heat.

In the SCC Housatonic, Cheshire puts its unbeaten division record on the line at Sheehan. A win and Cheshire clinches a tie and would clinch it outright with a win Monday over Lyman Hall. So the Housy teams are rooting hard for Sheehan.

A win over Branford at home and Career would maintain a two-game lead in the SCC Oronoque with three road games left. That would leave it to North Haven, which trails by two in the loss column, to beat Career Monday. Career won by 24 last time out.

Then there's the Hammonasset where Hillhouse hasn't lost a game since 2005. That won't change.

Next week some SCC teams play as many as three games with a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule. Then division races will start to become official

After a Tuesday bye week for most SCC teams, the league returns with a full schedule this evening.
The biggest game is No. 7 Career vs. Wilbur Cross at 6 p.m. at the New Haven Athletic Center. Something has to give between these Oronoque Division foes: Career has won eight straight since a season-opening loss to Hillhouse while Cross has won four straight.
The top two teams play in the Hammonasset (3-0 Hillhouse at 3-0 Hand) and two of the top teams (West Haven at Fairfield Prep) play in the Quinnipiac.The first installment of the battle of Wallingford is tonight as a desperate 2-7 Lyman Hall team plays at Sheehan at 6 - part of a boys-girls doubleheader.
One big game in the Shoreline Conference is 9-1 Cromwell visiting 8-1 Coginchaug at 7:30 p.m.
In other action, Stratford travels to Notre Dame-Fairfield (SWC), Danbury tried to avoid losing its third straight in the FCIAC when it plays at unbeaten Ridgefield and Holy Cross tries to hand Watertown it second straight loss (NVL).