Waterford - There was over four minutes left in the first half Friday night when New London High School sniper Seth Lake hoisted up a 3-pointer.

Lake was guarded tightly before he took the shot. He was also in the corner and almost standing on the Waterford bench, making it a pretty risky and low-percentage shot.

"Maybe for some people," Lake said with a smiled. "But when I'm feeling it, it feels like a good shot when it rolls off my fingers."

C.J. Parker (15 points) did his scoring inside while Lake dropped 15 points from the outside as the unbeaten Whalers scorched Waterford early and went on to win, 67-52, in an Eastern Connecticut Conference Medium Division boys' basketball game.

Try to defend that.

"Me and Seth have been playing together for three years, so we've built a nice chemistry," Parker said. "When he's shooting the ball from outside really well, then it opens up the inside. And if I'm working hard in the inside, it opens up the outside. We're both able to get open looks because of our scoring."

New London is 9-0, 4-0, and ranked sixth in the New Haven Register Top 10 media poll.

Bryan Cespedes added 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Whalers and Collin Sawyer scored 11.

"C.J. came out in particular and gave us a good start," New London coach Craig Parker said. "Seth was knocking down some big shots, and you know that we have multiple players that can do that as far as the inside-outside type game goes."

Waterford coach Greg Gwudz said, "They're tough to defend. (Lake), (Nabate) Metts, Sawyer ... they can all fill it up, and then the big guys play their roles great. I think their big guys are underrated. ... They're a legitimate team."

Kevin Johnson made six 3-pointers and scored 18 points for the Lancers (5-3, 3-1) and Kyle McComic added 10.

"We really played into their hands," Gwudz said. "Instead of trying to get to the basket or trying to get any kind of offensive set, they immediately shot the ball as quickly as they could.

"It was almost like we were playing against two teams - we were playing against New London, and playing against ourselves. We just didn't play well."

Parker scored 10 in the first quarter to give New London a 23-8 lead. He scored twice on layups and took seven free throws.

"They came out playing with four guards," Lake said. "C.J. had a mismatch, so I just kept feeding him the ball. He was getting to the lane and getting free throws."

Lake started and ended a 10-0 run with 3-pointers to push the Whalers' edge to 38-12 late in the first half.

"I came out of the box pretty confident," Lake said. "The first shot, as soon as I saw it go in, I knew the rest of them were going to fall, so I just kept shooting."

Gwudz said, "We talked all week that we'd had to score points to be able to set up our defense. I think we had two good offensive possessions in the first half, then we just punted everything else. That's very disappointing."

Metts' 3-pointer and a short jumper by Cespedes' gave New London its biggest lead, 61-34, with over five minutes left in the game.

n.griffen@theday.com

Twitter: @MetalNED