FAIRFIELD — Wilton’s Jack Williams lit up the Fairfield Ludlowe defense for 17 points in the first half.

In the second half the Falcons made it a point to lock the junior down, holding him to just five points as the Falcons came back to beat the Warriors 59-52 on Friday afternoon.

“Williams killed us in the first half. I think he had 17 points,” Ludlowe head coach John Dailey said. “So we made a little adjustment to just face-guard him and try and take him out of the game a little bit more.”

While keeping Williams at bay in the second half, the Falcons offense got to work led by Cole Prowitt-Smith (19 points) and Mason Rush (17 points).

“They attacked our seams and we played poor defense in the second half,” Wilton head coach Joel Geriak said. “Give them credit. Don’t get me wrong, they made their adjustments and they hit their gaps and they got to their shooters.”

Fairfield Ludlowe led early in the first quarter 9-2 and then not again until the four minute mark of the fourth quarter as Greg Lawrence scored after a Rush 3-pointer, giving them a 48-47 lead.

Wilton’s Andrew Connolly knocked home a 3-pointer from the corner to give Wilton the lead back for a minute but a Rush put back tied the game up at 50-50.

“Big put-back and two big 3’s from him,” Dailey said about Rush.

Four straight free throws from Lawrence and Francisco Guillen gave the Falcons a 54-50 lead.

Wilton’s Matt Kroenberg knocked down two free throws to pull the Warriors within two with 52 seconds left, but they wouldn’t score the rest of the game.

“They outworked us. Give them credit, they outworked us. We had chances to put the game away and we didn’t. We missed foul shots, we didn’t make some box outs and they made some big shots when they had to. They didn’t miss their foul shots,” Geriak said. “We forced shots, when were down three, four, five points with 1:30 left. We just started to attack the wrong way, meaning going to the rim and forcing up an off-balance shot instead of jump stop and kick it out to the right people.”

From the tipoff both teams started slow, which could be attributed to the fact that the game started an hour late after the Wilton team bus hit traffic on I-95 after an accident in Westport.

Both teams missed shots early but it was Ludlowe who jumped out to a 9-2 lead midway through the first quarter and that’s when Wilton switched its defense to a 1-3-1 and it helped Williams get going.

“Joel made a good adjustment switching to the 1-3-1 there, which really stalled us” Dailey said. “I think we were up 9-2, he goes zone and then we didn’t score again for a while.”

Williams (22 points) led the Warriors on a 13-0 run to end the first quarter scoring eight of the 13 points and then he scored the first four points of the second quarter to give Wilton a 19-9 lead.

After three more points from Williams, James Maloney scored four straight points for Wilton to close out the half with a 26-17 lead for Wilton.

“We attacked well and we played fundamentally sound defense. Whether it was man-to-man or the 1-3-1, in the second half it broke down,” Geriak said.

Ludlowe started its comeback early in the second half, cutting its deficit to six, 40-34, by the end of the third quarter.

“We made some shots; we got some shot to go down that we didn’t have,” Dailey said. “We started to attack the zone a little bit more, which we didn’t do in the first half.

“It was weird. The game felt like it never really got really out of reach. We were always just a basket or two away, if we get it to six, then four and we’re right there,” Dailey added. “Thankfully we made a few shots, we got a couple rebounds, and we tried to really help in the paint on the drives.”

Ludlowe’s win snapped a two-game losing streak and the Falcons travel to play Bridgeport Central on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“This was a much-needed win. We got it,” Dailey said. “We know Wilton is a good basketball team and Joel is a great coach and we’re happy to get out of here with a win.”

For Wilton, the Warriors dropped their second close game in a row and will host Ridgefield on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“We didn’t play our best basketball in the second half and we still had a legitimate shot to win the game. We had the lead with two or three minutes left in the game. We had a legitimate shot to win the game,” Geriak said. “We just have to learn how to finish games off. It’s been two games in a row that we were close but not quite there. We are young so we’re trying to the get that next step.”