The WCA boys basketball team suffered its second loss of the season last Friday, 64-62.
It was the second non-conference loss for the Spartans, who fell to 4-2. WCA returned to NVL play on Wednesday night at home against St. Paul. The Spartans have rolled in league play so far, and that trend continued with an 89-73 victory over the Falcons.
WCA (5-2, 5-0 NVL) raced out to a 26-point halftime lead, then stretched it to 34 by the end of the third quarter behind the dominant offensive efforts of Zaire Lott and Drew Williams. Lott scored a game-high 36 points, including five 3-pointers, and Williams wasn’t far off of him with 29 points. Lott and Williams form a nasty 1-2 punch.
WCA has shown NVL opponents so far that running with them isn’t a great idea if you fail to match their pace. A lightning-fast 8-0 spurt to end the first quarter turned a seven-point lead into a 28-13 bulge. Williams ran off eight points by himself at the end of the first half to give the Spartans a 52-26 lead.
Williams and Lott went back and forth in the third quarter, with the two combining for the final 13 WCA points of the frame – nine for Williams and four for Lott. When Williams beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer, the Spartans held a commanding 79-45 lead.
Williams and Lott were subbed out early in the fourth quarter, and that’s when it got kind of interesting. St. Paul ripped off 24 straight points to cut a 36-point deficit to just 12 at 85-73. Williams was back in at around 3:15 to go when the score was 85-66. The Falcons kept attacking, and Lott returned to the game with about 90 seconds to play and the score sitting at 85-71. Nyzier Houston (team-high 15 points) scored to get St. Paul to within 85-73, but Kewan Petteway and Lott scored the game’s final four points for WCA.
The Spartans showed why they can be so good, but they also gave the coaching staff, led in head coach Ronan O’Leary’s absence (illness) by assistant Effrin Ellison on Wednesday, stuff to work on in practice. WCA’s next game is Friday at Ansonia at 6:30 p.m.
The Falcons (4-2) got off to a bad start, but showed a bunch of heart in the fourth quarter. St. Paul hosts Torrington on Friday at 7 p.m.
Caption: WCA’s Zaire Lott, left, and Drew Williams combined for 65 points in their team’s 89-73 win over
St. Paul. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69)
