WILTON — The Wilton Warriors lackluster effort against Staples earlier in the week raised coach Joel Geriak’s level of concern but the coach had a huge grin on his face tonight as his team gave him all the hustle he could want.
Wilton established a 17-point lead at intermission and then weathered two mini-uprisings by New Canaan in the second half for a 62-47victory at the Zeoli Field House.
The Warriors played furious defense and battled for every loose ball from the opening whistle. Geriak had used the practice time they had earlier in the week to instill the importance of both aspects of the game.
Wilton grabbed eight offensive rebounds in the first quarter alone and held the Rams Tyler Sweeney to two points in the first half while they established their 17-point advantage.
“That was our game plan tonight, Tyler is an All-FCIAC player. I’m not sure what he ended up with tonight but we wanted to make him work for everything,” said Geriak. “Staples beat us up pretty well and we challenged our kids yesterday in practice if you want to make FCIAC’s this is a game you have to win so in practice we had them going after every loose ball and rebounding drills. We had them going into the bleachers and they took it to heart.”
Wilton is 11-6 overall and 8-5 in FCIAC play.
Jack Williams led the offense with 25 points and six rebounds while Matt Kronenberg finished with 14 points and Drew Connolly added 13.
It was not a great shooting night for either team but New Canaan finally started to get Sweeney open midway through the third quarter and they put together an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 34-24. Wilton rallied behind Williams and Connolly to extend the lead to 45-30 going into the fourth frame.
Sweeney exploded for nine points In the final quarter which gave the Rams one more chance to mount a dramatic rally. His long trey made the score 49- 41 but Kronenberg matched with a traditional three-point play to steal the momentum back.
“They got it down to eight or nine and Kronenberg drove and attacked the rim,” said Geriak. “He wasn’t having a good night shooting tonight but he found a way to help our team win. He has been carrying our team the last couple of game.”
New Canaan fell to 4-14 overall and 3-11 in conference play. Sweeney finished with 15 points and Michael Svagdis added 14 including eight points in the second quarter. Head coach Mike Evans was at a loss as to why his team came out so slow. Wilton was not bigger or faster but seemingly won every 50-50 ball which speaks about effort.
“We just can’t do it for a whole game,” said Evans. “The story of our season is consistency. This game was a microcosm of our season and I just keep scratching my head,”
Evans was pleased with their second half and wondered aloud what would have happened if his team could have stone-walled Kronenberg late in the game.
“I really like what we did in the third quarter. To weather that storm and get it back to eight points and it was in the same decade of points and then it went away,” said Evans.”It’s on me first. I mean Joel did a great job and the kids were great we just can’t do it for a whole game.”