Wilton-Lyndeborough boys basketball advances to D4 final with win over Littleton

PLYMOUTH - Jordan Litts believes the Wilton-Lyndeborough High School boys basketball team has been playing its best defense of the season over the last few weeks.

Not too many people would argue against that point.

The No. 4 Warriors turned in a stellar defensive performance again Monday night, as they held No. 1 Littleton to its lowest offensive showing of the season in a 56-42 win in the Division IV semifinals at Plymouth State University.

The Crusaders came into the game averaging 65.9 points through its first two playoff games, and had scored less than 50 points just three times all season. But against WLC, Littleton had just 17 points in the first half after shooting 20 percent from the field, and finished the game going 16 of 56.

"Our defense has gone new heights," Litts said. "I've never seen it like this, just this last few weeks.

"The last few games, the team we've been playing comes out and hits some shots and I think our nervousness lets them get those shots in the very beginning. We just get motivated to stop them. Every single game, it's been the same stretch and it's pure motivation to win, I think."

It certainly helped WLC (17-4) to have Litts, who finished with a game-high 28 points to go with nine rebounds and seven steals. Ty Carrier added nine points and Trey Carrier had eight as the Warriors went 19 of 23 from the free throw line, outscoring Littleton (5 of 11) by 14 points.

"Once again, our defense saved us," WLC coach Ken Garnham said. "Ragged offense with a lot of turnovers, but defense saved us. We ran delay very nicely and forced them to foul. You've got to make big foul shots when it counts and we did. We converted. They fouled us and we made shots."

The Warriors needed both on a night when points were hard to come by. In its previous 20 games, WLC had gone 1-4 in games it scored under 58 points.

Littleton (19-2) got 11 points from Ethan Ellingwood and Kuba Kubkowski added 10 points, as the Crusaders lost to a team from the division for the first time all season.

The Crudsaders took the lead early and went up 12-8 on a pair of free throws by Eric Shafer with 3:02 left in the opening quarter. But WLC forced Littleton into four turnovers in the final three minutes to help turn that deficit into a 13-12 lead.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Casey Lane and Ty Carrier gave WLC a 21-14 lead and forced Littleton to take a timeout with 7:06 left in the half. The Crusaders got a basket out of the timeout, but scored just one point in the rest second and trailed WLC 25-17 at halftime.

The Warriors went up 10 points, 30-20, on a 3-pointer by Duncan Rae early in the third, but the Crusaders went on a 9-0 run to pull within a point with 4:02 to go until the end of the quarter. Trey Carrier and Rae made 3 of 4 free throws to keep WLC ahead before Litts hit two 3s, including a buzzer beater, to give the Warriors a 39-33 lead going into the fourth.

Those 3s were part of a 7-for-21 shooting performance for WLC in the second half, but the Warriors made up for it from the foul line, going 11 of 13 in the game's final 4:11.

“Every once in a while, you’re going to have a bad shooting game, and coach said that in four games in the playoffs, there’s going to be a bad shooting game,” Litts said. “We practice free throws in between every running drill we do. That was a big thing there.”

The win sends the Warriors to the final for the first time since 2008. They'll play for the title against former coach Sean Young and defending-champion Epping at noon on Saturday at PSU.

"We play on a neutral court and we like our chances," Garnham said. "They're a very good team. They're well-coached. They are an athletic team and a big team. I like to think we're better on the big court, too. We like to run, we've got some size. It's going to come down to a play here or play there."