Week 6: Centaurs roll to third win

The Woodstock Academy boys basketball team was coming off a pretty tough week.

It had battled hard against Cheney Tech only to fall short in overtime.

Then, it traveled down to Waterford and were unable to find the basket often in the first three quarters.

But it rallied to best its output in the previous three quarters in the fourth quarter alone only to fall five points short at the end.

The Centaurs needed something good to happen.

They got that early in the week at the Alumni Fieldhouse as they rolled to a 58-28 win over Plainfield at the Alumni Fieldhouse.

"We definitely needed this one," Woodstock Academy coach Donte Adams said. "After a tough one at Waterford (a 51-46 loss the previous Friday), this was a great bounce back win for the guys and for the program."

It was also the first game of the second half of the season and that’s what the Woodstock Academy chose to focus on.

After getting only two wins in the first 10 games, the Centaurs were off to a new start at 1-0.

"I have the utmost faith in them that we are going to get it together in the second half," Adams said. "We have (nine) games left and we're 1-0 at the moment and we're going to treat these last nine games as playoff games."

It's also a chance to see where the team has improved and still needs to improve.

Against Plainfield, the Centaurs didn’t waste any time.

Woodstock Academy scored 11 of the first 13 points and that helped lead to a 24-13 lead at the half.

That lead was extended to 16 by the end of the third quarter and the Centaurs coasted from there.

Sophomore center Brady Ericson led the way for Woodstock Academy against Plainfield with 16 points as he had some room to operate for a change.

"Brady was back to himself," Adams said with a smile. "He played well in the paint. He didn't shoot any 3's but he dominated inside. He fed off the others, got a lots of balls dumped into him and had a lot of nice finishing touches in the paint."

Ericson, who added six rebounds, has been double-teamed in the past several games and had a big post player to contend with against the Lancers.

"It's all new to him and he's just adjusting; adjusting within the flow," Adams said.

Carter Morissette was the only other player in double figures with 10 points.

"We have various guys who can step up like (Garrett) Bushey, Carter, Hunter (Larson), it can be any guy's night at any given moment and that's the best thing about this team," Adams said.

Unfortunately, the good news didn’t continue on Friday.

The Centaurs had their second matchup with the Fitch Falcons, a team they had lost to in overtime, in their season opener.

This one would not be as close as Fitch pulled away on their home floor in Groton and downed the Centaurs, 52-33.

The loss dropped Woodstock Academy to 3-9 overall and 1-4 in Division II of the Eastern Connecticut Conference.

The game had all the looks of another nailbiter early as the Falcons and Centaurs both struggled to put the ball in the net and Fitch held a slim, 8-6, lead going into the second quarter.

But the next two quarters would belong to the home team as Fitch outscored Woodstock Academy, 30-11.

J.J. Robinson scored 11 of his game-high 18 points for the Falcons (9-2, 6-0) in those two quarters and Lorenzo Rivera added nine of his 11.

Nate Virtue also reached double figures with 10 for Fitch.

The Centaurs again got a little healthier in the fourth quarter when they put 14 points on the board but it was just too little, too late.

Brandon Nagle and Garrett Bushey both finished with nine points for the Centaurs while Hunter Larson added seven.

It’s a big week ahead for the Centaurs who have home games on Monday against Killingly; Wednesday against Griswold and Friday versus Windham.