Old Lyme — Old Lyme relied heavily on its depth in the Shoreline Conference tournament semifinals Tuesday night.

The Wildcats had little choice with senior starter Olin Frederiks watching nearly the entire boys' basketball game from the bench after injuring his left ankle in the opening minutes.

No problem.

Old Lyme seized control with a 26-point second quarter on the way to beating Valley Regional 66-47. Four different Wildcats scored in double figures, including junior Aedan Using (17 points), junior Raymond Doll (14), senior Quinn Romeo (13) and junior Brady Sheffield (13).

"Losing Olin obviously hurts us a little bit, but we go eight, nine deep sometimes," coach Kirk Kaczor said. "So we have faith in all the guys on the team. The next guy has got to step up and that's what they did."

The second-seeded Wildcats (18-4) advance to the Shoreline title game for the first time since 2016. They'll face top-seeded and undefeated Cromwell (22-0), a 48-28 winner over Morgan School.

The championship game is at 7 p.m. Friday at Polson Middle School in Madison. In an earlier meeting on Feb. 18, Old Lyme pushed Cromwell to the limit before losing, 50-48.

"Since the beginning of the season, our goal has been to win," Using said of the championship. "The regular season is nice, but nothing in-between matters. This is what it is all about. We had to get there first, obviously. We've done that. Now it's all about game-planning and winning when it matters."

The Wildcats, who won the regular season meeting against Valley (59-50), were forced to make an adjustment when Frederiks limped off the court about a minute and a half into the semifinal. He tried to return in the second quarter after having his ankle taped, but came off the court for good after about 40 seconds.

It didn't matter.

A few minutes later, Old Lyme played its best stretch of basketball going on game-changing 18-2 run. Doll's driving basket pushed the Wildcats in front for good at 19-17.

They were just getting started.

Old Lyme cranked up the defensive pressure, took control of the boards and sped up its offensive attack. Using did it all on the court, serving as a rebounder, scorer and facilitator.

"Aedan is a special kid in terms of what he can do," Kaczor said. "We had to list him for the state tournament for a position. Geez, I don't know. Everything. ... He's part guard, part center and part forward."

Freshman Jacob Ritchie's basket handed the Wildcats their first 10-point lead, 27-17. Two minutes later, Doll attacked the basket again and scored to cap the run and make it 35-19.

Old Lyme went into halftime with a 37-21 edge after outscoring Valley by 15 in the second quarter.

"We started scoring and rebounding better," Kaczor said of his team's second-quarter surge. "There was no secret to what we had to do tonight. We had to control the defensive boards a little better than we did. We struggled in the first quarter with that a lot.

"Once we started doing that and started pushing the ball, we attacked pretty well on the offensive end and made things happened. Players made plays, that was the difference."

Valley Regional (16-6) made a charge in the third quarter, closing to nine (37-29), but that's as close as the Warriors would get.

Old Lyme refused to buckle and maintained a secure lead by sinking timely baskets and converting free throws, scoring 11 points from the line in the fourth quarter.

"I was happy the way they all played," Kaczor said. "It was a tough, physical game and they kept their composure and just kept playing."

Now the Wildcats get another shot at Cromwell.

"We had a tough loss last time," Using said. "But we're ready to win."

It's too early to say whether Frederiks will be ready to play, according to Kaczor. At the end of the game, Frederiks left the court on crutches.

"He has some ice on it now and he'll stretch it out over the next couple of days and we'll see if he can come back," Kaczor said. "Obviously, we'd like to have him back. I don't think it was a bad (injury). He was still going out there, he just wasn't going very well."

g.keefe@theday.com