The King Philip boys basketball team has done it again.
After upsetting the number two seed Wellesley last week, the Warriors took down Falmouth High School, 59-49, on Tuesday night to advance to the Division 2 South Finals.
Led by junior Jake Layman's 34 points, the Warriors quickly erased a halftime deficit and pulled away in the third quarter.
"That's a little bit more points than what we've been giving up," King Philip head coach Sean McInnis said. "In the second half, we did a better job on the defense. We did a better job rotating."
Falmouth outscored King Philip 27-24 through two periods, but the Warriors turned in a strong defensive effort in the third quarter and limited the Clippers to just six points.
"In the first twelve minutes, no, we didn't execute our game plan," McInnis said. "But we stuck to the game plan, and then that happened. The second half happened and that was very good for us."
Jake Layman’s older brother, senior Connor Layman, was second in scoring with 10 points, three of which came on a huge shot from beyond the arc to start the second half, tying the game at 27.
“Connor Layman’s such a great role player,” McInnis said. “He doesn’t do more than what he has to do. We talk about it every single time a kid goes in. I double and triple check, ‘What is your job?’ Everybody knows their job and they do their job. We did that better [in] the second half and Connor did a nice job doing his job.”
For the Warriors, it was an all-Layman first quarter. Jake (10 points) and Connor (four points) were the only two players to score in the opening frame.
“He was knocking his threes down, he had an and-one,” Jake Layman said of his older brother. “It was great.”
Connor finished with two blocks while Jake pulled down double-digit rebounds.
“Jake is a special player,” McInnis added. “I thought what was better for Jake was his rebounding in the third and the fourth quarter. We talked about it at halftime that we needed more of an inside presence from him. He did a nice job rebounding. We put the ball in his hands a little bit more against their press. That was able to open [the game] up. We got a couple nice layups.”
King Philip guards Harry Washington (two steals) and Christian Fair (three steals) each finished with four points, but their major contributions came elsewhere.
Fair was matched up with Falmouth’s Nelson Baptiste, who finished with 13 points. However, Fair held Baptiste scoreless in the final frame.
“I have to be honest, and this is okay with Christian,” McInnis said. “Christian is not known for his offense. Christian’s our defensive stopper. When you can get somebody to step up like that, it was tremendous. He’s such a tremendous basketball player that’s really stepped up.”
After Layman’s big three to start the second half, Fair hit one of his free throws. Falmouth’s Kyle Kasprzyk responded with a jumper before Fair buried a three on the other end, putting King Philip up 31-29 and the Warriors never surrendered the lead.
Washington took control of the tempo after a shaky first quarter for the Warriors.
“I love Harry, he’s such a special player,” McInnis added. “He really sets the tempo for us and does a really good job.”
Both guards set up Jake Layman – and he recognized their efforts.
“Christian had a hard assignment covering Baptiste, he did an amazing job,” Layman said. “Harry was all over the place with steals, it was good.”
Early on in the second quarter, with the Warriors up by 3, Fair stole the ball and dished it ahead to Jake Layman who slammed it down, sending the King Philip fans into a frenzy.
After Falmouth answered with five straight points, Layman stole the ball himself and took it the length of the floor for another rim-rattling jam.
“That was a big momentum changer,” Layman said of the dunks. “It brought the whole team up another notch. It got us through.”
Though happy to see a signature slam from Layman, he was more impressed by the reaction it got.
“My proudest thing about that is the crowd that showed up,” he said. “[It was] the crowd that came here. KP has shown all their pride and all the students, they were tremendous.”
The Warriors will now play the number-one seeded Hopkinton Hillers in the south finals, Saturday at 8 p.m. at UMass Boston. The Hillers have defeated co-Davenport Division champions Stoughton and Oliver Ames back-to-back on their way to the finals.
“Hopkinton is such a tremendous team,” McInnis said. “We have to try to figure out how to stop them. They are so big inside; they have some good guards. We’re just happy to be here. This is such a tremendous thing for the community and for the whole area.”