Woodland celebrated senior night at Beacon Falls in victorious fashion as they upended the Wildcats by a 60 – 49 margin, qualifying for the state tournament with an 8 – 12 record.
Seymour fell to 12 – 8 on the season and will have a week to regroup to get ready for the post season.
Ansonia claimed the Brass Division with a 78 – 66 win at Wolcott to finish the regular season at 13 – 7.
“The bottom line is Woodland wanted it more than we did,” said Seymour head coach Joe Carrafiello. “This was not the Seymour team that I’ve seen all year. We were tight and we just didn’t come to play tonight.”
It was obvious from the start that Woodland came out with an agenda. They knew there would be a battle on the boards with Bryan Spickle, one of the best rebounders in the league going up against another league setter in Rich Adeniyi.
But it came down to execution on defense. Ryan Genua virtually shut down the Cats offensive threat holding Kyle Moran (9 points) in check. Louis Krohelski (23 points) found a little fire power from the perimeter but it was a dominating third period that directed the flow of the remainder of the game.
Woodland broke out to a slim 12 – 10 advantage after one period on the strength of six points from Spickle with Genua (8 assists) leading the way. Three times Seymour battled back to take the lead in the second period.
Krohelski buried a three from the top of the key to put the Cats out on front for only the second time in the game at 13 – 12. Chris Sheppard (8 points) scored on a back door lay up and when Adeniyi went baseline Seymour owned a slim 24 – 21 lead at the break.
“We were playing for the division and they were playing for spot in the state tournament,” said Carrafiello.
“As it turned out they played with a lot more urgency than we did. This one caught up to us. We played a determined team that had something to play for.”
The third period was the difference maker. Woodland outscored the Wildcats by a 22 – 9 margin in the stanza to take over the game. Spickle, Shaine Thompson and Yahmad Roundtree did the damage on the inside as Genua directed traffic out on the perimeter lending four of his assists to gain a double-digit advantage at 43 – 33.
Tyler Hardman (5 points) cut the deficit at 45 – 43 with 5:48 to go. Seymour went into a drought after that as Woodland continued to drop the ball in from the three point arc.
Spickle scored on three straight possessions and Genua was threading the needle through traffic. With 2:40 to play the Hawks were way out in front by a 56 – 43 margin. Eric Parmelee dropped in a three for the Cats but it was too little too late. Seymour was unable to close the gap.
