HATFIELD — Carter Woodward splashed three 3-pointers in the first quarter against Smith Vocational’s zone. Thursday’s Falcons Holiday Classic game was the first time the Smith Academy boys basketball team had seen a zone in the young season.
The Falcons settled for 3-pointers, but they were making them.
“If shots aren’t falling right away then you don’t look like you’re running a good offense, and if they do it looks like you’re running a great one,” Smith Academy coach Matt Zerneri said. “I think we were settling too much. We hit a couple early, and we just got comfortable.”
Smith Academy was comfortably ahead seven points after the first quarter and stretched its lead throughout the game, finishing with a 67-32 victory. The Falcons will face Southwick in the championship at 7:15 p.m. Friday after the Rams beat Gateway Regional in the opening game.
“If we handle the press and make them play a half-court, defensive game, then we’ve got a good shot,” Zerneri said. “If we’re careless with the ball we could be in for a long night.”
Southwick beat Smith Academy (2-1) twice in successive games last season.
“We owe them,” Woodward said.
Woodward finished with five 3s and a game-high 19 points against Smith Vocational (0-2). The bulk of his scoring came in the first quarter and second half after foul trouble limited his playing time in the second.
“Early on I was feeling it,” he said.
The Falcons’ defensive effort was lacking in the game’s early stretches. The Vikings took advantage of that and hung around, pulling as close as 31-22 with 4 minutes, 21 seconds in the half after an Elpedio Adorno turnaround jumper. They would have been closer without three missed fast-break layups.
“It’s heartbreaking when we get those and we’re not able to convert that,” Smith Vocational coach Akara Holder said. “We’ve gotta focus on making those kind of layups.”
Michael Brown rimmed out a 3 that would have cut the lead to 6, then the Falcons outscored the Vikings 36-10 over the rest of the game. They opened the fourth quarter on a 9-0 run to go up 52-24 with 6:44 left.
“They picked up the defensive intensity. They got in passing lanes and made it hard for Smith Voke to be able to run any offense,” Zerneri said. “That’s what I wanted from the start.”
Brett Gratz added 17 points and two made 3s for the Flacons, while Jack Zigmont had 13.Tyler Top and Andrew Pierce both reached double digits for the Vikings with 10 points apiece.
Smith Vocational will face Gateway in the consolation game Friday at 5:30 p.m.
“We didn’t lose because of a lack of effort, that’s for sure,” Holder said. “Sometimes we don’t wait enough for the offense to happen, we’re not seeing the open guy. That becomes a problem.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.