Senior forward Chris Esemplare scored 21 of his 23 points in the second half Thursday night as the Ridgefield boys basketball team rolled Fairfield Warde 78-48 in an FCIAC contest in Fairfield.

The Tigers, who have won five straight games, moved to 10-1 in the conference and 11-1 overall. Warde suffered its seventh straight loss and dropped to 3-8 and 4-9.

Sophomores Kurt Steidl and Andrew Barton added 15 and 10 points, respectively, for the Tigers.

Junior Sal Siciliano led all Mustangs’ scorers with 17 points with Terrell Walden and Greg Hyman combining for another 18.

Despite the lopsided victory, Ridgefield coach Carl Charles wasn't entirely satisfied with his team's effort.

 “We haven’t practiced in two days,” Charles said.  “Obviously, you can see we were rusty tonight.”

The Tigers started the game aggressively, double-teamming the Warde balhandlers and causing four in the first three minutes.  The Mustangs did not score their first points until the 5:33 mark.

However, Ridgefield only managed a 13-8 lead after the first quarter.  In the second period, Fairfield shot just 3-of-12 from the field and trailed 29-18 at the intermission.

“The first half was sloppy,” Charles said.  “We turned the ball over 13 times and that’s very uncharacteristic of us.”

Behind Esemplare, who scored 12 points in the third quarter, the Tigers' lead ballooned to 52-34 by the end of the period.

“We told the team at halftime, he (Esemplare) has to start shooting the ball because he’s our best player,” Charles said. “He only had two points in the first half.”