FAIRFIELD -- The question, right to the point, was quickly shrugged off by Ludlowe coach John Dailey.
Are the Falcons finally legit?
"Well," said Dailey, pausing for the effect, "we're just taking it one game at a time. That's our mantra. We're just living in the moment."
In case any other coaches or teams in the FCIAC were thinking otherwise, better forget it. The Falcons are definitely legit.
Sparked by 23 points from Matt Doyle and 14 from Mason Rush, Ludlowe used an eye-opening 30-4 run to turn a nine-point deficit into a 17-point lead and coasted to a 68-57 win over the defending Class LL champions Tuesday night at the Falcons' gym.
Trailing 14-5 with three minutes left in the first quarter, Ludlowe scored the last nine points to tie the game at 14-14 and then used a 21-4 run over the opening seven minutes of the second quarter to take a commanding 35-18 lead.
"We definitely were ready for a big challenge tonight," Doyle said. "And after these earlier games and some people questioning our schedule at the beginning, we were excited to get going and we were kind of licking our chops when we saw a big challenge like Central."
As part of that first-quarter comeback, Rush had two huge putback baskets that gave Ludlowe the momentum. He added two other baskets in that second-quarter run -- with Chad Peterson adding nine points and Doyle seven -- as the Falcons opened a 38-23 lead at the half.
"(Rush has) shown a lot of promise throughout the off-season and he's just been getting better and better every day," Dailey said. "And with the absence of Hayes Kelchner at the center spot, we really need him and Greg Lawrence to step up and play great, and Mason was terrific tonight. I was really proud of his effort tonight. He's got a lot of upside."
Central, meanwhile, showed very little upside.
"We just didn't show up, you know? We weren't ready to play," Hilltoppers coach Barry McLeod said. "We haven't been in the gym in a couple of days and it looked like our attention span was limited. We got out to a lead and just let them go wherever they wanted, we had no ball pressure, we didn't apply any pressure, we never got any second shots, we just didn't play well in any aspect of the game."
Doyle scored 10 points in the third quarter as the Falcons went into the final eight minutes with a 58-40 lead and with three minutes to play, Ludlowe's lead was 67-47 before Central made it respectable with a 10-1 run to end the game.
"I felt that, at the start of the year, we were a very deep team and we stress team every day at practice ... any day at any given time," Dailey said. "We're playing for each other, we're playing tough and everyone understands their role."
And everyone is living in the moment.
CENTRAL (7-6, 6-5 FCIAC)
Marcus Blackwell 6 0-1 14, Charles Richardson 4 0-0 8, Dondre Daniels 7 0-0 15, Joaquim Johnson 2 0-0 5, Dyshaun Pulliam 4 7-8 15, Kaysone Washington 0 0-0 0, Fitzory Henry 0 0-0 0, Jordan Edmonds 0 0-0 0, Jonathan Hartley 0 0-0 0. Totals: 23 6-8 57
LUDLOWE (10-3, 9-2)
Darren Lee 2 0-0 5, Greg Lawrence 3 0-2 6, Mason Rush 7 0-0 14, Matt Doyle 9 3-4 23, Chris Howell 2 4-4 8, Chad Peterson 4 3-3 11, Steve Zembruski 0 1-2 1, Pwn Mockler 0 0-1 0, Brendan Mockler 0 0-0 0, Cole Prowitt-Smith 0 0-0 0, Thomas Duffy 0 0-0 0. Totals: 27 11-16 68
CENTRAL 14 9 17 17--57
LUDLOWE 14 24 20 10--68
3-pointers: C--Blackwell 2, Johnson, Daniels. L--Lee, Doyle 2
Fouled out: L--Howell
No comments:
Post a Comment