By Andy Hutchison

WESTPORT — Fueled by a 3-point shooting barrage, Staples boys basketball team defeated visiting Fairfield Ludlowe 56-41 on Tuesday night.

The Wreckers improved to 12-2 overall (9-1 in FCIAC play) and are the only team within a game of FCIAC unbeaten Ridgefield (10-0), a team the Wreckers play later this month. Ludlowe fell to 7-3 in conference play.

Staples trailed by a point late in the second quarter when Dhilan Lowman drained consecutive 3-pointers, then answered a Ludlowe dunk with another shot from downtown for a 3-point trifecta in the span of about a minute. He hit one from each corner and another from the right elbow of the arc. 

That helped give the Wreckers a 27-19 halftime lead.

Lowman came off the bench early in the third quarter and picked up where he left off, hitting one of his six 3-pointers in the game, this one extending the lead to 34-22. Lowman finished with 20 points along with four rebounds and an assist.

Ludlowe hung around but never dug deep enough into the deficit to put the Wreckers in danger of losing their advantage.

Staples carried a 43-32 lead heading to the fourth.

Mason Tobias canned a fourth-quarter 3 as part of his 16-point performance. Sam Clachko and Charlie Bowman both scored eight.

It wasn’t only long-range accuracy that the Wreckers leaned on. They scored on the fast break and down low with some nifty passing, including Bowman’s tricky around-the-back dish to Jack Jacob for two points late in regulation. 

Adam Udell handed out nine assists and added a basket on a drive to the rim, two blocks, a rebound and a steal. Clachko set up multiple teammates, including baseline drive and pass into the paint to Tobias for a hoop that helped to put the game out of reach. Clachko finished with five assists, five rebounds and a pair of steals.

Tobias added seven rebounds, two steals and a block. Matty Corrigan compiled four rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal.

Staples visits Trumbull at 7 p.m. Friday. (Game schedules are subject to change; click for the latest CIAC updates.) 

Andy Hutchison has been covering school sports — including Staples athletics — as well as news and feature stories in Fairfield County, since the 1990s.