Westhill, Wilton advance to semifinals
FAIRFIELD — Westhill had not made a field goal nearly midway through the fourth quarter when sophomore Jeremiah Winchester knocked down a 3-pointer from the right corner, putting the Vikings up by three.
Then with his team up by four with just over a minute remaining, Winchester caught a pass and quickly pulled up from five feet beyond the 3-point line, draining the long-range shot to put Westhill up seven and essentially ice the win over St. Joseph in the FCIAC quarterfinals.
The No. 6-seeded Vikings held on from there, beating No. 3 St. Joseph 71-65.
Westhill will face No. 2 Wilton in the semifinals Tuesday at Wilton Field House.
While Winchester’s first 3 was huge, his second was unexpected, even for his coach.
“I don’t know what Jeremiah Winchester was thinking, but I know when it left his hand, it was all net. I was saying ‘No, no, no,’ then when it went in Coach (Roberto) Nieves said ‘Yes, yes, yes,’” Westhill coach Howard White said. “I have been waiting for us to come back and play Westhill basketball. What better day to come and play?”
Westhill led by eight going into the fourth quarter but St. Joe’s closed the gap, using a 9-0 run to tie the game 59-59 with 2:30 to play before Winchester hit his first 3 of the fourth quarter.
Westhill had to play most of the fourth quarter without JeySon Slade who fouled out early, leaving it up to his teammates to close it out.
Slade was the leading scorer for Westhill with 25 points.
Along with Winchester’s big shots, forward Aidan Lamothe had a huge fourth quarter with 10 points, eight of which came on free throws.
Lamothe finished with 19 points.
“We had to keep our composure and keep moving the ball. Our goal was to penetrate and get to the free throw line,” Lamothe said. “I kept saying to myself ‘one shot at a time,’ and they kept going in. We kept our composure, played with intensity and kept our fast pace. Our defense was a little sloppy but we are still working on it.”
St. Joe’s Will Syndor scored 13 points in the first quarter but the Cadets did not get him the ball much from there with Syndor not scoring in the second quarter and only scoring seven in the second half for a team-high 19.
Derek Long also had 19 for the Cadets.
WILTON 68, DANBURY 40
Not much did not go right for the Wilton boys basketball team in its FCIAC quarterfinal matchup with Danbury.
The Warriors’ defense locked down the Hatters, they hit 3-point shots and scored near the basket, and when they did miss, Maxwell Jarvie, Parker Woodring and Maxwell Andrews were there to clean up the offensive glass.
It all added up to the No. 2-seeded Warriors rolling to a 68-40 win over No. 7 Danbury.
Wilton will face No. 6 Westhill in the semifinals Tuesday in Wilton.
“Offensive rebounds were huge. We aren’t the biggest team but we have two hard-working centers in Max Andrews and Max Jarvie and Parker is so athletic and they get so many offensive rebounds,” Wilton senior Kevin Hyzy said. “We preached energy from the start. We knew we had to come out and keep going and keep going. We got out to an early lead and never lost it.”
Hyzy led Wilton with 22 points, hitting five 3-pointers.
Wilton jumped out to a 19-9 lead after one quarter, expanding it each quarter as Danbury had few answers.
“Offensively we got the ball in transition really well. Little sloppy second half but we can work on that,” Wilton coach Joel Geriak said. “We got the shots we wanted to get all game long. Our big also did a really good job boxing out. Jervie had a great game last game and had a great game again today on the offensive glass.”