By Andy Hutchison

WESTPORT–In a battle of teams unbeaten in FCIAC play, Staples boys basketball, led by its stymying defense, defeated visiting Trumbull 54-36 on Wednesday night.

The Wreckers led by just two points late in the first half but got a couple of momentum-shifting baskets from Mason Tobias for a 27-21 lead at the break and pulled away in the second half.

“Huge effort,” Staples Coach David Goldshore said of the team defense. “We tried to make it hard of them — that’s the best we can do.”

And Staples’ best was plenty as the Wreckers improved to 16-0 overall and 11-0 in FCIAC play. The Wreckers held the Eagles (15-1 overall and 10-1 in FCIAC) to, by far, their lowest point total of the campaign. Trumbull had recorded 50-plus points in each of its first 15 contests.

Staples pushed the lead to double digits early in the third. The teams went back and forth with the Eagles getting to within eight on a 3-point play with just four seconds left in the stanza.

The Wreckers, however, beat the buzzer with Matty Corrigan finishing down low off a length-of-the-court pass from Sam Clachko. That made it 40-30 Staples heading to the fourth.

Staples held the Eagles to just one field goal (plus four free throws) in the final period. 

Austin Heyer drew a charge / offensive foul on the Eagles and overall team D contained a normally high-scoring offense.

The Wreckers outrebounded Trumbull 39-24 with Mason Tobias grabbing 11 rebounds, Clachko 10 and Dhilan Lowman and Henry Veissed seven apiece.

Tobias led the way with 17 points and Clachko and Heyer both scored 12. Clachko added six assists. Lowman had five points and Corrigan and Veissid both added four.

Although this is quite a statement win, the Wreckers are not getting ahead of themselves with four regular season games to play.

“It’s one game at a time,” Goldshore said.

“Obviously, really big win. We want to go 1-0 every day no matter who we play,” Clachko added.

The Trumbull contest was originally scheduled for Tuesday but postponed, which forces a back-to-back games scenario; the Wreckers have a quick turnaround–they return to the court to host Danbury tonight at 7.

Andy Hutchison

^{_{Andy Hutchison has been covering school sports — including Staples athletics — as well as news and feature stories, since the 1990s. He is the sports editor at the Newtown Bee. He writes for the Monroe Sun. He was director of communications and radio color commentator for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (now Islanders) hockey team. He has won numerous writing awards, including regional and national first-place honors.}}