Almonte’s 33 leads Bethel to 3rd straight victory
BROOKFIELD — The Bethel boys basketball team is off to its best start since 2016, improving to 3-1 after a definitive 55-34 win over Brookfield on Tuesday night.
After losing the season opener to Danbury, the Wildcats have rattled off three straight wins in large part thanks to senior forward Lorenzo Almonte.
The 2020-21 All-Conference selection is averaging 26.3 points per game and scored 30 or more points in a game for the second time this season in the Tuesday win.
Of Bethel’s 205 total team points thus far, Almonte has scored 107 of them (52.3% of his team’s points).
“I am coming out here to win for my team,” Almonte said. “We have struggled in these last couple of games, especially in the first half. It is my job as a leader to help my guys out, and when I start making plays I get other guys open looks as well.”
Almonte dropped 33 in the win over Brookfield, sinking six 3-pointers for his season high in points.
Bethel led Brookfield 23-17 at the half, and Almonte took his squad into the locker room having scored 18 points on his own.
“He kept us in it, we were totally out of sync at the beginning,” Bethel coach Matthew Lisi said. “He can really shoot the ball, and not only can he score but he is
unselfish. His teammates love playing with him because he knows they are only one pass away. He is just getting started to be honest.”
Almonte hardly slowed down in the second half, and the Bethel defense held strong after allowing 12 points in the first quarter.
“We changed our initial defensive game plan after the first quarter,” Lisi said. “Our defensive rebounding was not great all night tonight, they outworked us on the glass. That is something we will take a look at and keep working on.”
Bethel has already matched its win total from a season ago when it went 3-10, losing to Brookfield twice.
“I am super proud of this team, and I am happy with the 3-1 start, but we have not
played our best yet,” Lisi said. “That is encouraging, and good teams find ways to win. We still have a ton of stuff to work on, and the kids are doing a great job being coachable.”
Brookfield falls to 2-2 with the loss, but was happy to be back on the court again after a 10-day hiatus due to COVID complications.
“We had 10 days off, we hadn’t touched the ball until yesterday,” Brookfield coach John Flemming said. “I knew we would be a little flat, and we were missing our center today. It isn’t an excuse, Bethel played really well today.”
As if minimal preparation was not already an underlying issue, Brookfield is also dealing with inexperience with three juniors and two sophomores in the starting five.
“We just have to work more on our execution on offense,” Flemming said. “We are standing around too much, we aren’t setting our screens the way we should be, but that is maturity, and we will continue to work on it.”
Bethel now boasts the second-best record in the SWC behind undefeated defending champion Kolbe Cathedral (3-0).
“I see a lot of potential with this team,” Almonte said. “We haven’t played our best yet, but the sky is the limit when we come out and stay focused. I think we have a good chance at making a run with this team.”