Focused Waterford boys beat Fitch in ECC quarters
Groton — Sometimes one has to get kicked in the head in order to refocus.
Example: Waterford played its worst game of the season in mid-January in a home loss to New London.
The Lancers have since been on a tear. They scored the first 12 points of the third quarter to pull away from host Fitch on Saturday, 74-65, in the quarterfinals of the Eastern Connecticut Conference boys' basketball tournament.
Third-seeded Waterford (17-4) will play host to second-seeded Ledyard in Wednesday's semifinals at 7:30 p.m. The Colonels beat No. 7 St. Bernard, 84-59. Top-seeded New London will play No. 5 Windham in the first semifinal at 5:30 p.m. New London thrashed No. 8 NFA 62-20 while Windham edged No. 4 Bacon Academy 72-69.
The Lancers were out of whack during their Jan. 16 loss to New London (67-52). Even the score was deceiving because the Whalers led 61-34 with five minutes left. Waterford has since won 12 of its last 13 games.
"We lost on a Friday to New London and didn't have a great practice on Saturday," Waterford coach Greg Gwudz said. "We had Martin Luther King Day off, so I called up (Valley Regional coach) Kevin Woods and set up a dual practice at Valley, and we battled there. We got tougher as a team. ... His kids are tough.
"It forced us to go into a practice and battle and fight and be aggressive. When we do that, we're good. We're not the biggest team in the world, but I think we battle hard."
Connor Lewis had 20 points and 10 rebounds for Waterford and Landon Peabody scored 13. Also, Kevin Johnson, Michael Gianakos and Kyle McComic all scored 10 and Isaiah Jones added seven points and seven assists.
"We shuffled the lineup a little bit (after the New London loss)," Gwudz said. "We put KJ (Johnson) at the point because KJ is the toughest kid I think I've ever coached. He drives the whole team with that mentality, and it trickles down to everyone. We put Jake (Mangual) into the lineup because Jake battles. Connor is coming off the bench for us and he's been selfless about that. ... He brings us this intensity."
Peabody made back-to-back 3-pointers late in the first half to give Waterford a 29-23 halftime edge. The Lancers opened the second half with a 12-0 run. Johnson had five points as Waterford went ahead, 41-23, with over four minutes left in the period.
"The third quarter always seems to be our quarter," Lewis said. "We always come out with a lot of energy. It's just our quarter, I guess."
Eddie Volkerts had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the sixth-seeded Falcons (13-8) and John Floyd scored 20.
"I believe the first four minutes of the third quarter will be the key for the whole game," Fitch coach Allick Furtick said. "We talked about it in the locker room. Guys came out ready to go, and then (Waterford) went on a 12-0 run, and it just sucked the energy right out of us. We needed to force the tempo, and instead of doing it in the first four minutes, we waited until the fourth quarter, the end of the third, to do it. By then, it was too late. We just weren't all on the same page and it's inexcusable."
In other games:
• Collin Sawyer scored 19 and Bryan Cespedes 16 for New London in its rout of NFA. Seth Lake added 11 points for the Whalers (20-0), ranked second in the New Haven Register Top 10 media poll.
• DeAnte Bruton led Ledyard with 37 points as it used a second-half surge to overwhelm St. Bernard. Mario Graham scored 18 for the 10th-ranked Colonels (18-3). Paul Pepas had 20 points for the Saints (15-7) and Graham Fagerquist added 10 points. Ledyard used 38-32 at halftime, then outscored St. Bernard 27-14 in the third quarter to break the game open.
• Brody Labbe made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 11 seconds left to lift Windham past Bacon. Windham trailed 68-62 with a minute left and finished on a 10-1 run.
n.griffen@theday.com
Twitter: @MetalNED
Comment threads are monitored for 48 hours after publication and then closed.