Somers Rallies Past Westbrook in Class S Opener

Rusty and off their game early, Somers relied on Evan Woicik to carry them in the early going against Westbook.

When the Knights shifted their attention to the senior guard, the Spartans used contributions from a variety of players to pull away for a 57-48 win in the opening round of the boys' basketball Class S state tournament Tuesday night at Somers High School.

“We looked like we had eight days off,” Somers Head Coach John Hostetler said. “Defensively, we weren’t quite where we wanted to be... but with home court, Evan, and a good group around him, I liked our chances.”

Woicik scored 11 first quarter points, but the game remained in the balance thanks to Westbrook’s Alvin Lobo, who attacked the outside and drove through the heart of the Spartan defense en route to 10 first quarter points.

The Spartans tightened their defense, and junior Jayce Haynes helped limit Lobo’s damage in the second half.

“We went man to man and he wasn’t getting as much penetration before,” Woicik said of shutting down Lobo. “Jayce did a real good job of stepping up and not letting him do what he wanted to do. That was a real big help to both our offense and defense.”

Josh Fredette’s three-pointer gave Somers a 34-30 advantage with 2:58 left in the third quarter. A minute later, Haynes drove to the basket amidst traffic before kicking the ball out to a wide open Josh Patsun on the right wing. Patsun hit the three, and an ensuing foul under the basket gave the Spartans the ball again. Fredette took advantage of the momentum and converted deep in the left corner off the inbounds pass to make it 40-30.

Connor Eastman’s jumper 55 seconds into the final quarter snapped the Spartans 13-0 run, but Somers turned a 30-29 deficit into a 42-32 lead.

Somers mixed in some pressure defense against Westbrook late in the third quarter, and converted at the free-throw line down the stretch to keep the lead at a comfortable margin.

While the Spartans didn’t generate a lot of steals off the press, Hostetler said it allowed them to keep the pace where they wanted it.

For Westbrook, it simply came to down to being unable to stop Woicik.

“We tried every defense in our arsenal and we had stretchers were we played pretty good defense,” Knights Head Coach Jeffrey Beeman said. “Their defense was a little bit different then we were used to; it was a matchup zone, they were switching on everything. I think we needed to get a little more out of our post and a few more perimeter jump shots and we would have been able to hang tough.”

Woicik finished with 17 points, while Patsun had 16 and Haynes turned in 10. Lobo led all scorers with 18 in his last action as a senior.

Fourtenth-seeded Somers will travel to No. 3 Classical Magnet Thursda  at 7 p.m., while the loss marks the end of the season for the No. 19 Knights.

“The locker room is full of a bunch of tears with my seniors,” Beeman said. “Their passion is extraordinary. This team was probably picked to win five or six games all year and we came out with 11. The amount of joy that they brought me every day in practice is unmatched and I’ve been doing this for 27 years.”