Notre Dame Of Fairfield Boys Basketball Falls To Stratford 80-63

Junior Thomas Badja scored 29 points on Thursday night as the Stratford boys basketball team posted an 80-63 victory over Notre Dame of Fairfield in a South-West Conference contest.

Stratford, the defending CIAC Class L state champions, recorded its eight straight victory to improve to 13-2. 

The Lancers, who were coming off an  88-58 win over Newtown, lost for only the second time this season and dropped to 13-2.

Sophomores Bernard Brantley and Kinshawn Pettway added 18 and nine points, respectively, for Stratford.

Sophomore Tre McPherson led all Lancers’ scorers with 17 points with Daniel Upchurch and Earl Coleman combining for another 28.

 “I know it’s a regular-season game, but it’s a big game,” Stratford coach Paul Dudzinski said. “It’s a very nice win for us and were just trying to get better.”

Notre Dame used a 7-0 run to go ahead 11-4 with five minutes remaining in the first quarter before ending the period with a 22-16 lead.

The Red Devils quickly regrouped in the second period, ripping off a quick 9-0 burst with six minutes left.  

Foul trouble by Notre Dame allowed Stratford to get in the bonus with 4:34 left in the first half. A technical foul on Upchurch put the Red Devils in the double bonus and Stratford built a 44-38 lead at the half.

“They did everything they had to do to kick our butts,” Lancers coach Vinny Laczkoski said. “We helped the situation by not doing a lot of thing that we normally do.”

The Lancers were unable to get back in the game, as they were outscored 36-25  in the second half.

“We didn’t play,” Laczkoski said. “With the emotions of these types of games, these things happen.” 

Notre Dame is set to play Bethel in its next game on Friday night.