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Bethel High School used its height advantage and a 16-7 third quarter surge to take control of Thursday's game against Weston en route to a 62-51 victory in a South-West Conference game.
Max Molinsky scored 15 points for the Wildcats, which built a 32-24 lead with 1:30 left in the first half. The Wildcats (3-0) scored eight points in the final 90 seconds to tie the game and opened the second half with a 15-5 run to build a 47-37 lead. The Trojans never recovered.
"That's one of the best teams in the league,'' Weston coach Ryan Errico said. "We certainly lost to a good team. They have a couple of big guys, guards that can handle the ball, and they can play well in the half-court. In the second half, we just didn't come to play."
Weston (2-1) played brilliantly for most of the first half. The Trojans shot 12-for-17 (71 percent) from the field. Molinsky scored 10 in the first half, and Cole Roseman scored eight of his 10 points before halftime.
Once the Wildcats got untracked late in the second quarter, they never looked back. Weston committed five turnovers in the third period alone, and its shooting cooled as the Wildcats picked up intensity on defense. They also pounded the boards.
"If you face a team with three or four guys 6-4 and 6-5, rebounding is going to be a challenge,'' Errico said. "There aren't many teams in our league that have that kind of size."
Ryan Conroy scored 17 points to lead Bethel, and promising sophomore Daniel Garvin scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Garvin and Conroy combined for 15 of Bethel's 30 points in the second half.
Justin Mettel added nine points for Weston, which returns to action Monday in a non-league game against Staples at a tournament in Newtown. "I'd like to be 3-0, but 2-1 is better than 1-2 or 0-3,'' Errico said.
Do you have sports news? Contact Tom Renner at trenner@mainstreetconnect.us or at 203-947-4815.
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