Warde stifles Staples
Trinity, Ludlowe, Ridgefield advance to semis
— The Fairfield Warde defense stepped up big in the second half to kick start their comeback.
Trailing by nine points at halftime the Mustangs switched up their defense from man- to- man to zone and allowed just 12 points in the second half to beat Staples 51- 44 in the FCIAC quarterfinals on Saturday.
“Tremendous effort in the second half,” Warde coach Ryan Swalller said. “We showed what our defense we can be, I think we held them to 12 points from then on.
“Defense wins championships, we were able to overcome the first half with our second half defense.”
Fairfield Warde’s Brendan McMahon, who scored 30 points in each of the last two games, led the game with 23 points.
“He’s just confident,” Swaller said. “He’s a senior and he worked his butt off all year long.”
The Mustangs’ defense was able to lock down Staples’ Jake Thaw, who scored 13 of his team- high 15 points, in the first half.
“We switched up defense to start the third quarter and we put a big emphasis on going inside,” McMahon said.
This is the Mustangs first win in the FCIAC tournament in five years and though the team is happy, they know there is more to do This season isn’t over yet,” McMahon said. “We still have two more games that we are looking forward to in the FCIACs and the championship is what is really on our mind.”
TRINITY CATHOLIC 53, WILTON 50: With five seconds left in the game the only person open on Trinity Catholic was Abdoul Rassoul.
The senior caught the pass in the corner and drilled the 3- pointer to give the Crusaders the lead and the win, 53- 50 over Wilton in the FCIAC quarterfinals on Saturday.
“I’ve been practicing this kind of shot a lot,” Rassoul said. “For me it’s just, I was willing to take it anyway, we were down the stretch and that was the only choice we had. I felt confident in it.”
The emotions were high for Trinity Catholic, after it was announced on Thursday that the school would be closing at the end of the school year. This is the last FCIAC basketball tournament for the program that has won the title many times.
“I’d be lying if I said not anything, we talked about it,” Trinity Catholic coach Brian Kriftcher said. “We came into this thing from the beginning of the year and said we want to do special things, it’s a special group. We’re just thinking and saying survive and advance, move on.”
Kriftcher did say he spoke with the team about the decision this week.
“What I said to them in the locker room the other day, we had a long talk about it, look there are five seniors we were never going to be the same team next year anyway,” Kriftcher said. “Yeah, there’s a lot of emotion about what next year, a lot of uncertainty, about what next year holds and we’ll have plenty to talk about that as soon as the season is over. Right now our focus is on Fairfield Warde.”
Rassoul hit only one three- pointer in the game and though he might not take a lot of them during games, the coaching knew he could finish when it mattered.
“We didn’t draw up a shot for Rassoul, but he works on it all the time,” Kriftcher said. “We didn’t have a lack of confidence in him making it, but he nailed it and that was it.
“He was open and he can shoot it, he’s a good shooting,” Kriftcher said. “He’s a really good, really skilled player.”
The 3- pointer capped off a back- and- forth game between the two teams.
“They hit every big shot, we were scrapping, missing loose balls, they battled,” Kriftcher said. “( Wilton coach) Joel ( Geriak) always has them playing hard.”
Wilton’s Andrew Smith led the game with 23 points, hitting seven three- pointers.
FAIRFIELD LUDLOWE 71, ST. JOSEPH 60: Fairfield Ludlowe needed to come with a strong start and on Saturday night the Falcons did just that.
The Falcons opened up the game with a quick 15 point lead in the first six minutes of the game and carried that the rest of the way, beating St. Joseph 7160.
“We stressed to get off to a hot start and shoot with confidence and get out running,” Fairfield Ludlowe coach John Dailey said. “Luckily that was the start we needed. We knew they would make a run, they get to the rim.”
St. Joseph was able to cut the deficit into single digits in the fourth quarter, but the Falcons kept pushing to extend their lead.
“We were ready to come out strong, that’s what we had to do,” Ludlowe senior Rowan Keesser said.
Keesser and Ian Bentley were a dominant force at the rim for the Falcons all game, with Keesser scoring 19 points.
“Rowan is really tough, he’s our grinder, he rebounds and does the dirty work,” Dailey said.
Sam Sweeney led the Falcons and the game with 20 points and St. Joseph’s Jason James scored 19 in defeat.
RIDGEFIELD 60, NEW CANAAN37: Two years ago, Ridgefield came into the FCIAC tournament as the top seed and lost in the quarterfinals.
This time around the Tigers made sure that wouldn’t happen, beating New Canaan 60- 37.
The Tigers opened the game on a 17- 0 run and continued to run the rest of the way.
“I thought we were amped up for the FCIACs. New Canaan is a really good team and I thought our boys really responded at the beginning of the game,” Ridgefield coach Andrew McClellan said. “We knew they wouldn’t quit, they’re a well- coached, hard- playing team, so we just kind of grinded through the rest of the game. I just loved our start and we went on enough runs to keep them at an arm’s reach.”
Chris Knachel led the way, driving to the basket all game en route to a gamehigh 18 points.
“It always helps to get off to a good start,” Knachel said. “We’re all about stacking our possessions together, so to come out with a big start like that gave us a huge advantage to put them away.”
New Canaan’s Alex Gibbens scored 17 points in the loss.