Coming off a 2-16 season, Gray-New Gloucester boys’ basketball coach Ryan Deschenes thought his young team could surprise some people by grabbing one of the last tournament spots in Class B South.
The young Patriots did one better than that. They picked up a preliminary round win against reigning state champion Lake Region and earned themselves a trip to the Portland Expo.
Losing to top-seeded Yarmouth, 71-44, showed how far Gray-New Gloucester still has to go. But with just two seniors graduating — starting guard John Henry Villanueva and reserve forward Tanner Mann, Deschenes is intrigued by what his team can build off of the foundation from this year.
“Everyone else is back. We’re extremely excited we got a chance to be here,” Deschenes said. “What’s neat is coaching this team for five years, and (following it while) coaching St. Dom’s for four, GNG would have one every four years where they’d get in the tournament. Now, we’ve got a lot of guys back and we feel we’re going to take the next step next year.”
From the starting lineup, the Patriots will return their leading scorer, sophomore John Martin, who emerged as one of the top guards in the Western Maine Conference, junior guard Josiah Rottari, and sophomore forwards Jake Kackmeister and Hunter Colby. Two other sophomores, guard Josh Magno and center/forwardRyan Lachance, played significant roles off the bench.
“It’s frustrating that we didn’t show the state our best capabilities today, but a lot of that has to do with Yarmouth,” Deschenes said. “We feel great where we were this year and we’re ready to make strides next year.”
Raiders bolstered by bench
Oak Hill got a big-time performance from Evan Boston right when it needed it in Saturday’s 59-46 Class, B South quarterfinal win over Lincoln Academy. Boston poured in a game-high 28 points, which more than offset the limitations early foul trouble placed on the Raiders’ leading scorer, senior center Marcus Bailey.
Boston and fellow senior guard Austin Noble (eight points) played all but one minute of Saturday’s game to help fill the scoring and leadership void left when Bailey was relegated to the bench. But the Raiders also needed reinforcements in the front court, which senior Matthew Strout and junior D.J. Pushard provided.
“(Having Bailey in foul trouble) changes the rotation, but I have confidence with the bigs I have… Matt coming off the bench. D.J. Pushard stepped up big this time,” Smith said.
“This is probably the strongest bench I’ve had in the six years I’ve had with the program,” Smith said. “The guys know their role. They stepped up and did what they needed to do. Every one of them did what they were supposed to do.”
Paying the price
Foul shots are commonly known as “free throws,” which can be ironic because they can sometimes cost a team.
Both Class AA North girls’ quarterfinals at Augusta Civic Center on Thursday night came down to foul shots. And both teams that went to the charity stripe more in their respective games pulled out a close win.
How they pulled them out were very different, though.
In the first quarterfinal, Bangor held a double-digit lead going into the fourth quarter against Cheverus, but the Rams nearly paid the price for missing foul shots — 10 of 13 in the fourth, to be exact. That allowed the Stags to almost pull off a comeback, if not for a missed go-ahead 3-pointer in the final seconds.
“I told my assistant … ‘it’s going to come down to foul shots. We need to get a couple,'” Bangor coach Joe Johnson said. “That’s something we practice.”
On the flip side, Deering made its free throws en route to a narrow victory over Lewiston. The Rams made 13 of their 14 foul shots in the fourth quarter, and that made up a big percentage of their 19 fourth-quarter points in a four-point victory over the Blue Devils. Those made free throws kept the Rams ahead by two possessions for much of the final period.
No prep, no problem
In preparation for the postseason, the Monmouth Academy coaching staff worked throughout the regular season to scout several Class C South girls’ basketball teams.
One of the teams they didn’t scout was Searsport, which Monmouth beat in a preliminary game 56-25 on Tuesday.
“We hadn’t seen them,” Mustangs coach Scott Wing said. “They were the only team out of the 23-whatever teams in the Class C South that we hadn’t scouted, because we didn’t think we’d be playing them.
“Everything worked out that we ended up playing them, so we weren’t really sure, we knew who they were and some of their players and stuff, but we weren’t sure individually how they were. So we started out a little bit tentative to see how each kid kind of played, and then we realized, we could get up and pressure them a little bit more.”
Turns out, not much scouting was needed. The Mustangs held the Vikings to seven points in the first half, and advanced with a 31-point victory.
Third-seeded Monmouth faces sixth-seed Waynflete in the C South semifinals Monday in Augusta.
Learning from a rout
Monmouth and Searsport were close for about half of a quarter before the Mustangs took off with a big run.
After that, it was a blowout. Wing was able to use his entire bench extensively, and used that time to, in a way, scout his own players.
“I tell the girls this all the time, and this being a playoff game, I watch to see, No. 1, who can get the job done defensively,” Wing said. “If a kid can play defense, then they stand a chance of being one of those kids that come off the bench in an emergency if somebody gets in foul trouble.
“The offensive end, just don’t turn the ball over, and I’m happy with you. Everybody looks at the scoring, we’ve got kids that can score, but if they can get it done down on the defensive end, they’re probably going to be the ones that get in the game for us. And that’s what I watch in end of the game situations like that with some of the kids that don’t play as much, for that game when you do get in trouble.”
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