BEACON FALLS — After back-to-back wins, the Woodland boys basketball team has fallen on tough times and dropped four straight.
The Hawks fell to Holy Cross, 92-63, Tuesday night.
“They are more athletic than us but at times we stood and watched when we should have been doing other things,” Woodland head coach Tom Hunt said.
Not only did the Crusaders (7-2) play above the rim at times, but they were raining three-pointers, hitting 12 in the game. Woodland (2-7) connected on seven threes of its own, five of which came from freshman Zach Bedryczuk, who led all scorers with 23.
With less than five minutes to play Woodland was down five to St. Paul (5-3) last Wednesday on the Falcons’ home court. The Hawks cut the lead to one with possession, but lost the ball out of bounds. After St. Paul sank two free throws, the Hawks had a chance to force overtime. The Hawks got an open shot by Bedryczuk that rimmed out at the buzzer to end the game 53-50.
“We played them tough at their place which is always a tough place to play,” Hunt said.
Bedryczuk made three other shots from downtown to finish the night with 15 total points trailing only senior captain Jon Scirpo, who had five three-pointers and 18 total points.
The Ansonia (8-1) game last Friday was not as tight as the Chargers came away with a 65-46 victory.
“Although the score wasn’t indicative of how we played, I thought we put ourselves in good spots to take some good shots, but right now for some reason we aren’t shooting with the confidence that we were a little earlier in the year,” Hunt said.
Rich Rousseau and Scirpo were the only to Hawks to break into double digits with 12 and 10 points, respectively, while Ansonia had five different players do the same.
While the win column doesn’t reflect the effort put in, Hunt is seeing the style of play he wants from a team and personal level.
“The kids really believe in what we are doing. We are doing a good job of putting ourselves in position. They know that the system is there. These guys are where they are supposed to be. They run good sets so it’s just a case of putting the ball in the hole. You can’t do anything if you can’t get the ball though the net. The guys believe in what we are teaching and I think that they see it can be successful if we do the right things. Eventually the shots are going to fall, and when they do we are going to be very successful,” Hunt said.
The style the coach talked about implementing, a team that will be fast up and down the court offensively and active in the passing lanes defensively, was on display against Holy Cross. The effort from the players never lacked.
“Number four Jack LaPerriere is the epitome of what we look for here,” Hunt said. “He won’t be jamming balls, but he will be going 100 miles per hour in the right way that we want him to, like Tyler [Colladel]. I can’t ask for any more than Colladel gives every play because there isn’t any. He goes at it. He isn’t afraid to step in front of anybody to take a charge, he isn’t afraid to dive into the bleachers to save a ball. He is the epitome of what we want here. He really gets after it.”
The Hawks take on Watertown Friday at 7 p.m. in Beacon Falls.
“We have to be ready for them. They are coming here and how we play them is going to dictate the rest of the season. They have some seniors on their team; I have scouted them twice so we kind of know what they are about. If we do the right things we will be in a spot where we can put ourselves in a good position,” Hunt said.
Woodland will hit the road next week to face Wolcott on Monday and Seymour on Wednesday.
