TORRINGTON - Ask what the key ingredient was in the success of the Torrington boys basketball state championship team in 2006, and you'll hear a common theme.

"What stands out is how deep the team was," said Mike Fabiaschi, a senior guard for the Raiders. "I think the second five off the bench would've won 12 games in the regular season and a couple of tournament games."

"We had athletes," said former coach Tony Turina. "We had very smart basketball players. They were students of the game, and most of them were three-sport athletes. But during that stretch - 2005, 2006, '07, '04 - we had phenomenal athletes."

At no time was that depth more important than during the Raiders' 55-40 win over Holy Cross in the Division II state title game at Central Connecticut's Detrick Gymnasium.

Four members of the team were suspended for one quarter after they mooned a passing car on the bus ride home from a state semifinal win over Sheehan.

The four - starters Mark Woznicki, Gary Robinson and Fabiaschi, and reserve Sal Mancini - were held out of the first quarter of the championship game as part of the school's punishment.

The thinking by some was that the Raiders would have to hang on somehow against Holy Cross until they were back to full strength. The thinking was wrong. Torrington not only survived, it thrived.

Sophomore point guard Andre French controlled the game, scored seven of his 14 points in the first quarter, and Torrington led 15-11 when the buzzer sounded.

"When we won that quarter, what a heartbreaker that was for (Holy Cross)," Fabiaschi said.

Indeed, as the period ended, the Torrington students started chanting, "Here they come" before switching to "You're in trouble."

The game was played before a sellout crowd of 2,812, two-thirds of them rooting for Torrington. Loudest of all were the THS students who filled the bleachers across from the team bench.

Dressed in the school's crimson red - any other color meant banishment - they called themselves the Raider Crazies.

"No matter what, our boys knew they were taken care of and we were always going to be loud for them," recalled one of the Crazies' ringleaders, Frankie Graziano. "It became a point of pride that you had to be as loud as you could be so that (the Connie Donahue Gymnasium) would be the hardest place to play. We called it the House of Horrors."

In the second quarter, Torrington's defense put the clamps on the Crusaders as the lead expanded to 31-19 by halftime. Holy Cross, which had lost twice in three earlier games with Torrington that season, never really threatened in the second half.

With 14 points, French was named the game's MVP. Woznicki had 12 points and four rebounds. Freshman Jordan Williams, a future NBA pro, had 10 points and two blocks. And Ty Kittle contributed eight points and nine rebounds.

The game ended with the basketball in Mancini's hands. "I threw it up as high as I could," he said. "I don't remember it coming down."

As the final buzzer neared, CIAC officials pleaded with Torrington fans to stay off the court. But this was the school's first state title since 1944 (third overall), and the students were not to be denied.

Once the team handshake line was done, they surrounded their favorites and hoisted a couple of players on their shoulders. "It's their last game so you've got to storm the court for them," Graziano noted.

The 1944 state title had come under the guidance of Torrington legend Connie Donahue, who coached Turina when he played for the Raiders in the 1960s.

"1944 is a long way back," said reserve Chris Puzacke. "We'd be looking up at that banner every day in practice. We had (the portrait of) Connie Donahue (in the gym) looking down on us every day. It was always our goal to get a ring and a banner."

Last Friday night, at halftime of Torrington's game with Naugatuck, the school honored the 2006 state champions. Seven team members and Turina, who all live in the area, turned out. Others, such as French, who now lives in Florida, and Robinson, now the Watertown head coach, were unable to attend.

They relived their memories and once again heard the cheers of the Torrington crowd, egged on by Graziano, the master of ceremony.

Each of them also received a special keepsake from Turina. A history buff, he saved hundreds of now yellowed news clippings from his coaching days - so many that his wife once ordered him to throw them out.

"Seventeen years later, I haven't got to that point," Turina chuckled. "I kept all the ones that meant something to guys."

Among those were dozens of editions of the championship story, which he passed out to his former hoop pupils Friday night. The headline reads: "Call ‘em champs." In Torrington, they always will.

This article originally published at Torrington High honors 2006 CIAC boys basketball championship team: 'We had phenomenal athletes'.