“They knew it was a tough road to get here. They believed in themselves to get here,” Wilton head coach Joel Geriak said. “I think we belonged here. Tonight, Danbury put a little beating on us, but we worked hard. I don’t think they are 40 points better than us, I think they’re definitely a better team than we are right now, but I don’t know about 40 points.”

Right from tipoff the Hatters were in control.

Top-seeded Danbury knew what it wanted to do early, get the ball down low often.

“We thought they would come in with a box-and-one (defense) so we had it set to give Marcus (Fox) the ball or Scott (Nesbitt) off the screen,” Danbury head coach Casey Bock said. “Fortunately we got Marcus the ball inside and he was able to finish.”

Fox scored the first nine points of the game, giving Danbury an early 9-0 lead.

“We wanted to really make sure that they knew they couldn’t run that defense on us,” said Fox, who finished with 13 points. “That was the plan coming out of the huddle. Coach knew that they couldn’t really match up with us inside, so we wanted to go there as much as we could.”

A Tyren McCrea 3-pointer pushed the Hatters’ lead to 12-0 and it wasn’t until there was 2:09 left in the first quarter that the Warriors finally scored as Jack Williams found the bottom the net.

But the damage was already done as Danbury held a 14-4 lead after the first and continued its excellent play in the second quarter, taking a 32-18 lead into the half.

The normally good-shooting Warriors were held without a 3-pointer in the first half.

“They pushed up on us. They jumped passing lanes; they really hit us, physically not illegally. They physically pushed up on us and we backed down a little bit. When we missed a shot or turnover we put our heads down,” Geriak said. “That being said we didn’t quit tonight, we just didn’t get the shots to fall and a couple of times trying to get to the line, we didn’t get to the line.”

Coming out of the half, the Hatters had no plans of letting the Warriors hang around.

“The big thing in the locker room was Wilton is such a high-powered team, that (being down) 14 points for another team is six against Wilton,” Bock said. “So we had to make sure we started well in the second half.”

Back-to-back steals and finishes by Nesbitt kick-started a Danbury 17-0 run top open the second half.

“He (Nesbitt) came up with two big steals and finished them to start the second half to give us some distance to pull away,” Bock said.

Nesbitt scored 11 of his 17 points during the 17-0 run.

“Scott was a big bright spot for us,” Fox said.

Wilton’s Matt Kronenberg (nine points) finally ended the run midway through the third quarter with the Warriors’ first 3-pointer of the game.

“Just man-to-man and the guys took pride in keeping people in front of them and locking up,” Bock said of his team’s defense. “The kids came out and they played really well.”

With 5:30 left in the game the Hatters pulled their starters up 62-29.

“This is the one best defensive efforts and I thought we moved the ball well offensively,” Bock said.

Danbury will face No. 6 seeded Westhill, which beat No. 2 Trumbull 53-43 in the other semifinal, in the FCIAC Championship game on Thursday at Fairfield Warde High School at 7 p.m.

The Hatters are looking for their first FCIAC boys basketball title since winning against Westhill at the end of the 1991-92 season.

“Good players, good team, well coached, that is playing very well,” Bock said about Westhill. “We played them early in the year and they are a different team then when we saw them.”

For Wilton they will prepare for the Class L State Tournament.

“Tonight we’ll go home, they will reflect, hopefully; break down some film, show them what they need to work on. I think we got a game next Monday, so we’ll get back on the grind in two days, get back at it,” Geriak said. “It’s a home game, a whole new situation. The season is not over and they know that and now you just have to survive and advance.”