PORTLAND — Having lost twice to top-seeded Yarmouth during the regular season, ninth-seeded Gray-New Gloucester knew the challenges the Clippers presented in their Class B South quarterfinal.
Knowing what was coming and stopping it are two very different things, though.
Yarmouth dominated the paint and the second quarter to pull away from the young Patriots and cruise to a 71-44 victory at the Portland Expo Saturday.
The Clippers (17-2) will face No. 4 Oak Hill in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m. on Thursay at Cross Insurance Arena.
Yarmouth 6-foot-7 senior Alek Medenica finished with 22 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and three blocks, all game highs.
“He’s a great player,” Patriots coach Ryan Deschenes said. “For the most part, I felt we made him work for it. He had some openings here and there, but great seniors, great players are going to make plays in this venue, and he did.”
Gibson Hartnett added 14 points for the Clippers. John Henry Villanueva was the only Gray-New Gloucester player to reach double figures with 10 points to go with six rebounds.
Leading by seven after one, Yarmouth took control with a 21-7 second quarter. The Clippers made nine of 13 shots (69 percent), virtually all in the paint, and essentially shut down the paint at the other end.
“They’re bigger. They’re longer than us. They’re stronger than us. They’re more experience than us,” Deschenes said. “I think our bigs battled today. We went in with the midndset we want to battle those bigs today. We want to give it our best shot. And we got some looks inside early. Obviously, they alter a lot of shots, and it’s human nature to see that size and not want to shot-fake them and not want to go through them.”
Dealing with Medenica and his protege, 6-6 junior Nolan Hagerty (10 points, eight rebounds, six steals) at the other end might be even more difficult.
“I think the adantage that we had over them is that we’re a lot quicker,” Medenica said. “They played up on us a lot, so we were able to find back-door cuts really easily off of that. “
Yarmouth coach Adam Smith thought his team could have made even more of the mismatches.
“It was not a great match-up thinking about them for a week,” Smith said of Gray-New Gloucester. “We do have an advantage inside. I don’t think we took advantage of it enough, though. That comes with familiarity, too, because we think, well, when we played them before, we knocked down shots from the outside, so let’s stay outside and knock down some more shots. But the bigs, Nolan and Alec did play very well in the paint for us.”
Medenica put the Clippers up by double digits for the first time and for good with a free throw with 5:54 left in the first half. He and Hagerty continued to feast in the paint and draw contact while opening the lead to 36-15 by halftime.
Yarmouth outscored Gray-New Gloucester, 46-16, in the paint and 25-6 in second-chance points.
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