Strong 2nd quarter propels Stratford past Bethel
STRATFORD — It took 8:19 for Stratford to change the complexion of Saturday afternoon’s South West Conference quarterfinal.
The Red Devils can be thankful for it as well.
What was an early three-point deficit tuned into a 17-point lead following a 20-0 Stratford spurt and the Red Devils survived a furious second-half comeback by Bethel to post a 56-52 victory. Stratford will now play at secondseeded Kolbe-Cathedral at 7 p.m. Tuesday night. It will be the second consecutive year that the Red Devils will travel to the Shehan Center to meet Kolbe-Cathedral in the SWC semifinals. The last time Stratford reached the finals was in 2010 when it beat Newtown.
Early on Saturday, the Wildcats led 10-7 with 2:41 remaining in the opening quarter after Lorenzo Almonte (20 points) canned a 3-pointer from the left side.
But after that it was all Stratford for the remainder of the first half.
The Red Devils used some defensive pressure on the perimeter and didn’t allow the Wildcats to get the ball inside to 6-foot-7 Payton Bell. Meanwhile, Stratford got hot from the field and that led to a 20-0 run over the next 8:19 as the Red Devils took a 27-10 lead with 2:39 to go in the second quarter with J’zhuan Davis (15 points) hitting a 3-pointer that ended the spurt.
“We started pressing and the energy picked up,” Kirkland said. “We got steal after steal and turned it into points.”
Almonte finally stopped the run by the hosts with a trey from the right side with 2:22 remaining until halftime.
“We lost some confidence in the second quarter when they adjusted their defense and got up on Lorenzo and denied him a bit more,” Bethel coach Matt Lisi said. “We’re not a good enough team that can afford to lose confidence and aggressiveness for eight minutes at a time.”
Jayquan Kirkland (21 points) closed out the first half with three consecutive free throws as Stratford extended its lead to 32-12 at the break.
“I thought we were flat early but our press got us going,” Stratford coach Tim Swaller said. “We had a great second quarter and defensively we were solid. We talked at halftime and we knew they’d respond.”
Bethel did just that as Brian Legnard (11 points) hit a pair of long-range jumpers and Coelho and Bell each added a basket to cut the deficit to 32-21 with 4:10 to play in the fourth quarter.
Kirkland finally got Stratford on the board in the second 20 seconds later to end the Red Devils’ drought.
However, the Wildcats kept on nipping at the Red Devils’ lead with Almonte hitting a jumper with 16 seconds to go in the third quarter to pull Bethel to 39-30.
“We went smaller in the second half,” Lisi said. “We went with our best get up and deny defenders, and also got up in the full court and the passing lanes. It was just a bit too late.”
Stratford continued to seem out of sync in the fourth quarter as Bethel kept pecking away at the deficit, finally getting within five, 46-41, on a layup by Pedro Coehlo with 4:31 to play.
“I told them in a time out when we were down five that there’s enough time left that we could win the game,” Lisi said. “But Kirkland hit some really tough shots at the end.”
But Stratford extended its lead to 51-41 with 2:02 to go thanks to a free throw by Mike Olivencia and buckets by Kirkland and Davis.
“We weren’t playing defense and they hit big shots,” Kirkland said. “We got out of sync and we weren’t going to our sets the right way. But we rallied back and hit some big scores.”
Bethel was able to cut it to 53-47 with a minute to play but Brady Knorr iced things for the Red Devils with a pair of free throws.
“I thought we played a little tight at the end,” Swaller said. “We just have to finish games a little bit better.”