A good day to play favorites
Waterford, NFA put together solid efforts to reach final
Waterford — It is perhaps an odd observation, but one of the first things one notices about the Waterford players is their arms. As in they're long. Real long. The Lancers have length and size. Their arms always seem stick out of a crowd under the basket as they grab a rebound. Or when they're reaching out to tip a pass.
Waterford used that to its advantage against Fitch during Saturday's Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I boys' basketball semifinal. Big men Ryan O'Connell and Liam Spellman combined for 33 rebounds as the top-seeded Lancers used a late surge to put away the Falcons 70-43.
Waterford (21-1) will try to defend its championship against No. 3 Norwich Free Academy in Tuesday's final at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Xavier Marquez led a terrific defensive performance as the Wildcats knocked off No. 7 Woodstock Academy 63-42.
The Day will live-stream both the Division I (6 p.m.) and II (8 p.m.) finals.
O'Connell, a 6-foot-5 junior, had a game-high 19 points and 17 rebounds with four blocks for the Lancers, ranked fifth in the GameTimeCT/New Haven Register Top 10 state poll.
Spellman, a 6-4 senior, added 12 points, 16 rebounds and five assists.
“We have a pretty big team,” O'Connell said. “Four out of our five starters are six foot or above, which is kind of crazy.”
Payton Sutman scored 11 of his 15 points in the second quarter and had six assists for Waterford and JJ Brennan scored 14. Reserve Cadin May-
nard added three steals.
Ajia Brown (15 points) was the only player to score in double figures for the fourth-seeded Falcons (12-9).
“We just didn't look like we were ready,” Fitch head coach Charlie Silvan said. “We've got a young team, and I just feel like we weren't able to handle the moment.”
The Falcons made Waterford work for the win and trailed by just 10, 50-40, with over seven minutes left. O'Connell took over and scored 11 in the fourth. He also finished 11 of 13 from the free throw line.
“I was getting a little angry at the pace of the game,” O'Connell said. “I think we needed to slow it down a little bit. I just tried to do as much as I could to help the team win.”
Spellman said of O'Connell, “He was ridiculous. He was working so hard, and I love to see that out of him because it gives me more energy to try and beat him on some rebounds. We knew they weren't going to go away. We beat them twice in the regular season, and it's hard to beat a team three times. So we knew they were going to come out with a lot of fire and a lot of heart.”
Fitch went scoreless for the final 5:51.
“(Waterford) was able to stay calm and execute their game plan,” Silvan said. “Their point guard (Kenny Hill) is probably their most unheralded player. He does a great job settling them down, getting people in all the right spaces. And Spellman is a warrior. They're a good team.”
In the opener, Marquez was matched up against Woodstock's Chase Anderson, who averaged 19.3 points. Anderson was held to a point.
“Everybody knows he's a threat in the conference and the state,” Marquez said. “We just wanted to prevent that from happening today. I just did my job sticking to him, basically.”
Marquez's face shows just how hard he plays defensively as there few scratches and scars near his right eye. “Got a little bit of battle scars,” he laughed.
Andrew Gromko had four steals for the Wildcats and Marquez had three.
“He works hard,” Woodstock head coach Martin Hart said of Marquez. “He was right there glued to (Anderson). He does it efficiently and he does it cleanly, and it just makes it difficult. He's got strength and speed and he's pretty savvy.”
The Wildcats also hurt Woodstock from long range as 11 of their 23 made field goals were 3-pointers. Nik Hay (20 points) and Mason Jackson (16) both made four 3-pointers for NFA (16-6). Nolan Molkenthin also scored 12.
“We needed six guys to cover a team that shoots it that well,” Hart said.
Cole Hackett scored 18 for the Centaurs. No one else scored in double figures.
“They boxed-and-oned us,” Hart said. “We had some ideas for that, but they did a nice job of doubling and helping off, and it just throws a wrench in the whole system.” n.griffen@theday.com