JAY — The Spruce Mountain Phoenix finished 2016 on a roll, even though Wells did all it could to slow their roll on Friday night.
The Phoenix played with patience and, with the exception of a late technical foul, poise to outlast the Warriors, 59-51, in a matchup of unbeaten Class B South teams.
Four players reached double figures for the Phoenix (6-0), led by Noah Preble’s 14 points to go with eight rebounds. Austin Darling and Brett Frey chipped in with 12 apiece while Caulin Parker added 11.
“We came in confident, 5-0 for the first time ever, so whatever happened we were just going to stay together and try to win this game,” Frey said. “We’re not a selfish team. Whatever helps us win, we’ll do it.”
“That’s us,” Spruce Mountain coach Scott Bessey said of his team’s scoring balance. “Any of our guys are capable of going for 20 or 25, but I think when we’re playing our best, it will be five guys all in double figures, Austin will have a bunch of assists, everybody will have a bunch of steals. I just think we can shoot the ball a lot better than we have.”
Keegan Reidy led Wells (4-1) with 16 points, but just three in the second half after burning Spruce Mountain with corner 3-pointers in the first half. The Phoenix also did a good job defending the paint against Wells’ rugged 6-3 senior center Deandre Woods (eight points, eight rebounds)
“We didn’t execute as well offensively as we can and get people open for some open looks,” Wells coach Troy Brown said. “(Woods) is one of my better basketball players and didn’t get a lot of good looks tonight.”
Wells almost made up for its lack of offensive execution by employing a three-quarter court trap to slow down the normally fast-paced Phoenix.
“Their 1-2-2 gave us fits, slowed the pace down a little bit, believe it or not,” Bessey said. “Sometimes that three-quarter trap does that, forces a fast team to play more cautious. I thought it was effective.”
Forced to execute their halfcourt offense, Spruce Mountain took care of the ball (12 turnovers), took good shots (46 percent from the field) and did good work on the offensive glass (10 offensive rebounds to Wells’ seven).
“We always want to push, but I think we do okay when we’re taking it easy. But we we want to push,” Frey said.
Frey helped the Phoenix stay aggressive as they picked their spots to attack the basket and got to the free throw line (16-for-27), including the play that put them in front for good.
Trailing by five at halftime, the Warriors battled back to a 34-34 tie less than three minutes into the third quarter when Reidy hit their only 3-pointer of the half, a shot from the corner that bounced high off the back of the rim and straight down through the net.
Wells had a chance to take the lead, but Frye made a steal and converted a runner at the other end while getting fouled. He made the free throw for a 37-34 lead.
Preble extended the lead to five with a putback with 0.2 seconds to go in the period. Wells pulled to within four on a Cameren Cousins hoop with a little over five minutes left, but Spruce Mountain answered with eight of the next 10 points to pull away, sparked by Frey’s pullup jumper and an Andrew Shaw hoop off a nice feed from Darling.
Spruce Mountain rallied from a slow start to forage a 17-11 lead at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter turned into a long distance contest between Reid and the Phoenix, with the first 15 points coming on 3-point shots. Frey drilled the final trey then took it to the hoop for two to help the Phoenix open a 28-21 lead.
“The last two games were tough but we haven’t been playing that well,” said Frey, whose team was coming off back-to-back one-point wins over Maranacook and Poland. “We just haven’t gotten to our potential yet.”
“Obviously, it’s a huge win,” Bessey said. “There are a lot of Heal points there. They’re going to win a lot of games this year. They’re a good team. I still think we can play a lot better. I don’t think we played well. They had a lot to do with it. Our starting five, we haven’t gotten them firing on all cylinders yet. And when that day happens, it should be pretty special.”
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