By james art 
Waterbury – This is in the semifinals of the League of the Valley Nauguk for the St. Paul Basketball Team.
Sophomore Kili Bon and Jr. Zola Kudo combined for 44 points, as falcons # 2 won a 56-34 victory over No. 10 Oxford in the quarterfinals.
Bon scored 25 points at 10 field goals on two points and five free throws, while Cudjoe had six goals on the pitch in two points, and seven made free throws to account for its 19 points as Falcons (14-7) won the sixth your play in a row.
Everything was St. Paul from the beginning, as they popped up to 13-7 leads after the first quarter and then continued by 21-6 in the second quarter to extend their lead 21, 34-13 of the half. It was a lead that increased to 51-24 after the third quarter.
Senior Madi Bileki added four points, junior Carly Cheruto Three and Senior Ava Stevenson two.
Sophomor Ava Kisia led Oxford (9-12) with 13 points. Sophomore Rachel Florin and freshman Sani Fraser added seven points to Oxford.
St. Paul had defeated Oxford 51-44 less than a week on February 18th.
The Naugatuck High School will host the semifinal and championships. St. Paul will meet with No. 3 Seymour, winner in 57-38 over No. 6 Ansonia, in the first semi-final game on Monday from 5pm
The other best seeds also serve, with # 1 beating the Holy Cross No. 9 Woodland Regional, 60-45, while No. 4 Wolcott detains # 5 Torington, 54-41. The game of the Holy Cross/Walkot will follow the “St. Paul/Seymor” competition approximately 19:00
No. 3 crosby 77, no. 6 st. Paul 50
Waterbury-run with 15-0 to start the second half doom the St. Paul Basketball Team for boys on Saturday, as the falcons # 6 seeds fell to # 3 Crosby, 77-50.
Leaving about 14, 26-12 at the end of the first quarter, the falcons gathered to enter within five, 40-35 of the half.
All this evaporated quickly as the bulldogs (15-6) kept the falcons (12-10) without a point for the first 6:30 of the second half. By the time Lamar Fraser contacted St. Paul’s first bucket of the second half, they lagged behind 18, 55-37.
“It was not part of our halftime adjustments,” said St. Paul Steve Phelps coach. “And it happens. Crosby comes to you in noise. They have very good players, many reaction players. They hit you with many weapons, they are strong physically, they are well trained and before you find out that you have passed a few minutes and have not scored. “
A pair of free throws from Senior Reican Anderson gave Crosby their advantage in the beginning of 14 points. The placement of St. Paul Jr. Mike Riggsby at the end of a quarter helped to return to the falcons, and the triplets from the back of the sophomore Ethan Clement helped them back within seven, 27-20.
Sophomore’s striker Kobi Dagaga also managed to shake in the second quarter for the falcons, marking seven of his eight points in the stanza. The senior Nevin Kinsey, the leading goalkeeper of Crosby with 17.9 points per game, gave 14 of his 24 points in the first half to help preserve the Bulldogs in the front. But St. Paul did a good job against Crosby’s defensive pressure in the second quarter, as buckets of Rigsby and a sophomore Nick Leget to close the second quarter received the falcons within five of the half.
“We made some very good decisions in the first half,” Phelps said. “We looked opposite, the boys cut off the ball. In the second half, they turned it a little and we began to move away from the action instead of shortening the passage and going to the action. We call it as running in the fire.
“We were able to find him (Dagaga), he did some good actions away from the ball.”
Kinsey broke a pair of reports in the third quarter, and freshman Julian Benjamin had seven points in the stanza, as the lead was 58-40 after the third quarter.
“These children up (in crosby press) are athletic and they are read very well,” Phelps said. “It’s not an attempt to manage a traditional press switch as you would do at Junior High. They force you to make decisions. “
Anderson had 18 Crosby points, while Benjamin and Jr. Casslean Washington had nine each.
Kliment led St. Paul with 19 points, while Rigsby also had eight.
St. Paul will already turn his attention to the State Tournament, while Crosby will meet with WCA # 2, winner in 57-44 over # 7 Seymour. No. 4 Torrington defeated No. 5 Woodland Regional, 77-53, while # 1 Holy Cross defeated No. 9 Kennedy, 76-70. The semi -finals and finals will return to Wilby High School, as a half -and 7pm on Tuesday and the championship at 6:30 on Thursday.
“This is a young group, but many of them have experienced it before,” Phelps told her team, “We were lucky to be in the papers for 18 consecutive years. Many of these children who are in the program have been exposed to this year. But they are in different roles. We have some traditions we make before the tournament to get us into the right frame of mind. At this point, the post -season is now that children feel positive, in the right frame of mind and try to heal and let the chips fall where they can. This is certainly a failure, it will take some time to overcome, but I think there is a degree of maturity that we will rely on from these players. “