WILTON — One of the strengths for the Wilton boys basketball team is its 3-point shooting and on Monday night it was no where to be found as the Warriors fell to Danbury, 69-50, an FCIAC game at the Zeoli Field House.

“They pushed up on us and we backed down from it,” Wilton head coach Joel Geriak said.

The Warriors (8-4) hit just one 3-pointer, from Matt Kronenberg, during the first three and half quarters. They then hit three more in the final four and half minutes.

Danbury’s defense came in knowing it had to stop the Warriors’ 3-point shooters.

“That was our focus, to get to the 3-point line,” Danbury head coach Casey Bock said. “I thought their guards did a good job getting into the lane and making shots, but our focus was making sure that all their 3’s were contested.”

The Hatters (11-1) defense forced the Warriors into the lane.

“When teams do that our goal is to get to the hole and the rim and other than Matt Kronenberg, who played a phenomenal game, he carried us for the whole four quarters,” Geriak said. “We had 16 or 17 shots in the first half and he took seven or eight of them and they were all great shots.”

Kronenberg led all scorers with 20 points but it wasn’t enough while leading scorer Jack Williams was held to just nine points.

“Jack forced tonight. He forced,” Geriak said. “They pushed up on him (Williams) a little bit. He’s starting to see that now, which is deservedly so, and that’s why Kronenberg gets some good looks.”

At one point Kronenberg scored 15 straight points for the Warriors.

Right off the tip both teams struggled to score at all. Wilton hit just one field goal at the end of the first quarter and without Tryen McCrea the Hatters would have only scored two points. Thanks to McCrea’s eight points, Danbury would lead by five, 10-5 after the first quarter.

“Our offense comes from our defense so I thought if we got some stops and were able to push in transition that would help us out offensively,” Bock said.

The Hatters did just that, led by senior Scott Nesbitt who scored nine of his team-high 16 points in the second quarter to give Danbury an eight-point lead at halftime, 27-19.

Wilton made it close in the third, cutting the deficit to six points heading in the final quarter, but like they had all game the Warriors would get close to the Hatters but not close enough.

“Offensively, shots didn’t fall that we could have made and we forced a lot of bad shots and that’s a credit to them (Danbury) more than anything else,” Geriak said.

The Hatters outscored the Warriors by 13 points in the fourth quarter as they ran away with their 11th win of the season.

“Everybody (contributed). We go 10 deep and any given night somebody is going to step up and make plays for us,” Bock said. “Keep getting better every day. Every night we are going to have a tough game, we just have to make sure we are focused on getting better every day.”

Danbury travels to Norwalk to play McMahon on Wednesday at 7 p.m., while Wilton goes on the road to play Darien, also on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

By: Dave Ruden January 19, 2016

WILTON — Joel Geriak brought his Wilton boys basketball team down the stairs from their locker room in the school’s field house Tuesday night and had them gathering equipment.

“If there is anything left out here you will run doubly hard tomorrow,” Geriak said.

This, after a 12-point win over the Warriors’ biggest rival.

That scene was as revealing as anything that happened in an impressive 51-39 win over Ridgefield, a game that was in no way as close as the score would indicate. A 14-0 run after the Tigers opened the game with a 3-point shot was the equivalent of a first-round knockout.

Wilton’s Jack Williams, who finished with 19 points, gets two on a layup. (Photo: Mark Conrad)

Wilton (7-3, 4-2 FCIAC) had a 15-point lead 11 minutes in and was up 42-18 at halftime before a raucous crowd in a scene that should have been videotaped so league officials finally bring the playoffs back to the conference’s best basketball facility.

So why was Geriak upset? Because Wilton coasted through the remainder of the game, scoring just 9 points in the second half. And he is trying to impress upon his players that great first halves will not reap any rewards if they are not followed up by the big finish.

The Warriors may indeed have the ability this year to win an FCIAC title, but not by going hard for just 18 or 20 minutes.

And Geriak knows it, which is why his players received both the olive branch and the whip after the game.

When it was suggested that Geriak again has the league’s most entertaining team because of a strict adherence to basics, he offered a caveat.

“I wouldn’t go that far because our other teams wouldn’t have scored 9 points in the second half, but the kids are fundamentally sound,” Geriak said. “They attack, they understand what they are doing. They go over a scouting report over and over again and the kids buy in, and that’s the main thing. The kids buy into the system.”

Wilton made eight 3-point shots in the first half, four of them in the first 4 1/2 minutes. Three were delivered by Jack Williams, a breakout star who finished with a game-high 19 points.

“He’s a special player,” Geriak said. “He was hidden by that phenomenal team last year. When you play behind eight seniors you are going to get hidden. He couldn’t go off the dribble like he did last year and make those incredible shots. Teams can take him away and he can still score.”

Wilton and Ridgefield players battle for a rebound during Tuesday’s game. (Photo: Mark Conrad)

Williams said the Warriors fed off a student section that filled the bleachers that run the entire baseline near the gym entrance.

“I think the energy from the crowd and what was in the building gave us the energy to win the game,” Williams said.

Then there was an active defense that is rooted in changing schemes and committing to one of the less glamorous aspects of the sport. It helps that Geriak scouts opponents as well as anyone in the league.

“We played hard, we got in the passing lanes all night, we made it hard for their shooters to get open looks,” Geriak said. “They may have made some shots here or there, but they had a hand in their face every time and that was the gameplan.”

Chris Longo, the Tigers’ top scorer, was held to just one fourth-quarter free throw, and Wilton didn’t do anything special to stop him except play hard.

“We definitely got in their head and they couldn’t get the shots that they wanted, and we contested shooters real well,” Williams said.

Matt Kronenberg added 13 points for Wilton.

Tuesday night was an example of what to expect over the second half of the season. Trinity Catholic defeated McMahon. Greenwich knocked off Trumbull, the last remaining unbeaten team in conference play. Neither should be considered a major upset.

The FCIAC title is up for grabs and the Warriors, a sentimental darling the past two seasons, is now very much in play.

Just as long as they provide Geriak with the big finish that will be needed to grab the ring.

WILTON — If the Wilton boys basketball team could bottle the first half of Tuesday’s game against rival Ridgefield, the Warriors might never lose.

They shot 8-of-14 from 3-point range, built a 24-point lead at the intermission and coasted to a 51-39 victory over the Tigers at the Fujitani Fieldhouse in a game was not as close as they score indicated.

SLIDESHOW: Wilton 51 Ridgefield 39

Jack Williams and Matt Kronenberg each hit three pointers in the first half as Wilton raced to a 42-18 lead at the intermission.

“Obviously, they’re open looks but it was all penetration, inside-outside looks, stepping into the shot and making them,” Wilton coach Joel Geriak said. “It wasn’t just passing it around and firing them up.”

Geriak wasn’t thrilled with the way the Warriors finished the game as they scored only nine points in the second half.

Still, Wilton led by 26 after the third quarter and played reserves in the final quarter.

The Warriors reached the midpoint of the season at 7-3 and need only one more victory to qualify for the state tournament for a school record-tying fifth straight year.

Williams, who scored 16 of his 19 points in the first half, ignited the offense by making all three of his 3-pointers in the first four and a half minutes.

Ridgefield (5-5) scored the first points of the game on a 3-pointer by Matt Bartalucci 24 seconds into the contest.

However, spurred on by a raucous crowd, the Warriors ripped off the next 14 points, held Ridgefield scoreless for nearly five minutes, and steadily pulled away.

“We got into passing lanes all night, made it very tough for their shooters to get open looks,” Geriak said. “They made some here and there but they had a hand in their face every single time.”

Williams’ third trey gave Wilton a 14-3 lead with 3:39 left in the quarter before a 3-pointer by Ridgefield’s Brendan McNamara briefly stopped the bleeding for the Tigers.

Wilton led 18-9 after the first quarter.

“What was going on in the building just gave us the energy to get off to a quick start and win the game,” Williams said.

After playing behind eight seniors last season as a sophomore, Williams has taken on a great role and become more of a leader.

He converted two layups in the final minute of the first half to give the Warriors their 24-point halftime margin.

“(Williams) was hidden by that phenomenal team I had last year,” Geriak added. “You have eight seniors, he’s not going to get a chance to shine like he is this year.

“But he elevated his game last year. He couldn’t go off his dribble like he can now with the pull-up jump shot. He has those shots now.”

Jack Wood’s 3-pointer pushed Wilton’s lead to 29-13 with 4:06 remaining in the second quarter.

Crowd favorite Nick Kronenberg, a five-foot-six freshman, then got into the act as his 3-pointer extended the lead to 34-16 with 1:22 left in the half.

Matt Kronenberg added a fourth 3-pointer in the third quarter and tallied with 14 points. Wilton finished with nine 3-pointers.

The Warriors outscored Ridgefield 8-6 in the third quarter, then scored only one point in the final quarter as the Tigers sliced 15 points off the deficit, though the outcome never was in doubt.

“Overall, defensively in the first quarter we struggled but defense wasn’t really our issue,” Ridgefield coach Drew McClellan said. “They ended up with 50.

“It was execution on offense. We didn’t play with poise or confidence. That’s a good team. They’re going to have a quarter where they shoot like that and you just have to figure it out.”

The Warriors frustrated the Tigers throughout with tenacious defense as Ridgefield didn’t surpass 30 points until under three minutes remaining in the contest.

Nick Laudati paced Ridgefield with nine points and Matt Saporito added eight.

“We definitely got in their heads and they couldn’t get the shots they wanted,” Williams said. “We contested shots real well and rebounded very well, too.”

The Warriors are back in action on Friday at Trinity Catholic (7 p.m.).

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.”

WILTON — When James Maloney was a sophomore he was a 5-foot-10, self-described “pudgy” shooting guard who was one of the last players cut from the Wilton High School basketball junior varsity team.

Instead of pouting and quitting the sport, though, Maloney went off and just had fun a couple of years, playing the game through the Wilton Recreation Department with his friends.

He also grew up a lot. Literally.

This winter, Maloney returned to the Zeoli Field House to try out for the team once again.

Only this season, he’s a 6-foot-4 center who is starting to come into his own as a varsity player and becoming a key cog in Wilton’s lineup and surprising early season success.

“He’s been a God-send to be honest with you,” said Wilton head coach Joel Geriak, whose team is 6-2.

Maloney — who claims he’s closer to 6-5 (“Six-six in shoes) — is averaging 8.5 points and 7.0 rebounds a game for the Warriors.

During the latter part of a six-game win streak, though, Maloney scored in double digits in three straight games, including a 20-point, 10-rebound effort against St. Joseph.

“My role honestly is just to work hard,” said Maloney. “Get rebounds, play defense, block shots if I can. When I get those little bunnies, I’ve got to make those. I’ve got to finish them when my teammates make those nice passes.”

More often than not, Maloney does make those shots down low, which is why he is becoming a bigger force in Wilton’s offense.

His 10-for-11 shooting effort from the floor against St. Joe’s was eye-opening, but for the season Maloney is shooting 24-for-37 (65 percent).

“I thought he could be a guy that could get a double-double for us,” said Geriak.

The player Geriak cut two years ago might have gotten double dribbles called against him instead of double-doubles in the stat book.

“I was a shooting guard, but that’s all I could do was shoot,” Maloney said with a laugh. “I just sat in the corner and knocked down shots. If I was Joel, I would have cut myself as a sophomore. I was in bad shape. I was chubby. I never would have put myself on the team.”

The Warriors have been guard heavy for a number of years, so the numbers just weren’t on Maloney’s side.

Even while the recreation league lacked the deep talented and intensity of the FCIAC, it kept Maloney on the court for two years.

“My rec team was pretty good. I wanted to see if I could win a championship, but it didn’t work,” Maloney said. “But it was just having fun with my friends. It was just about playing basketball. If I had to do the decision again, I’d still do it. I had fun and got a lot better playing, actually.”

As a junior, Maloney was bigger, height-wise, but wasn’t ready to make the transition from guard to post player, Geriak said.

“I saw him his junior year, saw he shot up from what we had seen and we saw his potential,” said Geriak. “But he wanted to be a guard. He decided to stick with rec league.”

This season, though, Maloney was ready to do what was best for the team and take his game down low.

“My friends were pressuring me to stay and play rec, but it’s not as much fun when it’s not competitive,” he said. “I signed up for the summer camps and fall league. At that point, I assumed (Geriak) understood I was trying out.”

And the Wilton coach saw a player who was ready to contribute.

“I just said, ‘This year, if you want to play for us, you need to go down low’ and he bought into it,” said Geriak.

The Rebirth of James Maloney, basketball player, got off to a slow start after he suffered a low leg injury during tryouts.

That forced him to miss all of Wilton’s scrimmages as well as its season-opening game against Pomperaug, a 71-58 loss.

He played sparingly against Masuk, scoring just a point, but was on the court quite a bit for the Warriors’ holiday tournament win over Staples.

In the title game of the Hoops-for-Heroes Holiday Classic at Newtown High, Maloney scored nine points (on 4-for-6 shooting) and grabbed 10 rebounds.

“I was out of shape and it was tough to come back, but I’ve been on a little roll,” he said.

His fellow Warriors are gaining confidence in their big every time out, too.

“The kids trust him,” said Geriak. “They’ll give him the ball because they know he can do something with it.”

And, if Wilton can’t get him the ball down low, Maloney will just go get it himself.

Of the 44 rebounds he hauled down in his first six games, 25 came off the offensive glass.

That kind of work has left the James Maloney of yesterday just a hallowed memory of the recreation wars.

“I just grew. It’s as simple as that,” said Maloney, who also admitted he rarely, if ever, wanders out beyond the 3-point circle. “It’s pretty much gone away. I don’t focus on it at all. Maybe I’ll shoot a 3-pointer in practice, but it won’t be pretty.”

At least now he won’t have to worry about Geriak cutting him.