Words and photos by Andy Hutchison
FAIRFIELD — Staples boys basketball withstood a late-game surge by Notre Dame Prep of Fairfield for a 67-61 win in Monday’s Division I State Tournament semifinal at neutral site Fairfield Warde.
The Wreckers are the top seed in the bracket and will take on No. 2 West Haven, a 43-42 winner over No. 6 Notre Dame-West Haven in the other semi, at Mohegan Sun Arena on Saturday, March 21 at 8:30 p.m.
The Wreckers jumped out to a 21-8 lead after one quarter and held a 39-26 halftime advantage. Staples held a double-digit lead for most of the night. No. 5 Notre Dame got the deficit down to nine a trio of times in the second half before finally chipping away and pulling to within five with just under two minutes remaining.
The Lancers nearly forced a turnover but the Wreckers added to the lead when Mason Tobias gathered a loose ball on the offensive end and scored for a 62-55 lead with 1:25 left. Staples got a stop on defense and went up 10 points on a Dhilan Lowman 3-pointer with one minute left and the Wreckers closed it out with a couple of free throws.
Sam Clachko scored 19 points, Matty Corrigan had 16, Tobias and Lowman each had 10 and Austin Heyer scored eight. Jack Jacob and Drew Hill both added two points.
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.
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