Dirigo tried to shut the 6-foot-4 senior down again in Friday night’s rematch, but this time, the Raiders had an answer — several, actually.
Darryn Bailey scored all of his game-high 16 points after halftime, while Austin Noble and Evan Boston added 11 points apiece as the Raiders dominated the second half and gained some revenge in a 54-35 win.
“When we played them before, they played Marcus as well as anyone had in this league,” Oak Hill coach Tom Smith said. “But all year long, we’ve had guys step up. And tonight, Darryn stepped up when we needed him.”
“They were double-teaming Marcus, so coach said we need to get open and get other people open,” Darryn Bailey said. “They box-and-one on my brother the first time. The second quarter, I thought we had it down.”
Oak Hill (9-6) started to figure it out with a 11-0 second-quarter run that put it in the lead to stay. Noble had seven points during the run, starting with a bank shot that tied the game at 14-14.
“It’s a huge help knowing that other people can score, that we can all get hot, that we can all contribute,” Noble said. “I think it’s going to help going further because we know teams are going to take out our best player.”
Marcus Bailey (seven points, 11 rebounds, six blocked shots) finally got on the scoreboard with an inside hoop that made it 20-14 Raiders. He followed that with an up-and-under in the lane that he banked off the window. Noble ended it with a 3-pointer.
Leading by six, the Raiders pulled away with an 11-2 run in the third quarter. After a Cohen Donnell 3 made it 33-24, Darryn Bailey scored eight straight points for the Raiders, all in the paint off feeds from Boston, Donnell and Noble.
The Raiders’ crisp ball movement translated to 58 percent shooting from the floor.
“These guys have played well as a team. We had a tough one (Thursday night), came from behind (in a 65-49 overtime win), so I didn’t know how they were going to respond,” Smith said.
Oak Hill led by 12 after three, then started the fourth quarter with another 11-2 run to salt it away.
After penetrating to the hoop with great regularity in the first half, Dirigo (4-11) shot just 24 percent from the field in the second half, thanks in part to the specter of having to shoot over Marcus Bailey once they got to the hoop.
Cooper Chiasson led Dirigo with 15 points and seven rebounds, while Luke Leuders added eight points.
“If we could have just made a couple more layups early, it would have made them come out a little bit,” Dirigo coach Travis Magnusson said. “When they’re able to pack it in, with their size, it’s really hard on us because we’re not very big.”
“We started off man, which was killing us, so we decided to switch it up a little bit,” Smith said. “Instead of our normal 2-3, I went 3-2. Austin Noble plays on the wing and does a great job on that side defensively.”
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