HEBRON — Rangeley set the tone early against Sacopee Valley in the boys’ basketball teams’ second meeting of the season Friday.
After losing the first contest in early January, Rangeley flipped the script and emphatically took down Sacopee Valley 63-49 at Hebron Academy.
Right out of the gates, Rangeley (9-4) took it to the Hawks (6-8) on offense. Nolan Boone and Ian Lillis scored seven points apiece in the first quarter, and the Lakers took a 21-6 lead into the second quarter.
Sacopee Valley coach Sam Bower said his offense has been lackluster at the start of games. He tried to change the defensive pressure to get his team going, but it didn’t quite work how he envisioned.
“We came out in our trap, because we hadn’t been bringing it to start games, we are flat,” Bower said. “I don’t think we were flat early today, I think we just got down on ourselves a little too soon. We weren’t executing offensively, either. We weren’t really even getting into it, we were breaking the press and then rushing.”
The morale didn’t improve in the second quarter when Rangeley continued to poor it on. Rangeley attacked with an ultra-balanced offense that included nine players getting on the score sheet.
Sacopee Valley’s Teagan Meggison added onto his six-point first quarter with five more in the second. Rangeley head coach Jeff LaRochelle was weary of Meggison, as well as Michael Murphy, who was held scoreless in the first half.
“(Murphy) scored 30 on us at St. Dom’s (in the teams’ first meeting), and tonight he got frustrated,” LaRochelle said. “We had two guys vertical like a fence and he couldn’t find the pass. … I think some of their players, they have shooters and are good at playing low, and we took that low game away. Last time we played, they probably had 12 or 14 plays down low. I think our press worked pretty good.”
Murphy and Meggison each scored four points in the third, but five different players scored for the Lakers, whose lead continued to increase.
Boone said the offensive outburst was just a matter of playing as a team.
“Just work the ball around more and move without the ball,” Boone said. “That’s key.”
As the third quarter came to an end, Boone stole the ball from the Hawks but missed his shot. Sacopee Valley started a fast break, but Boone chased down the play and blocked a shot, sending the ball out of bounds.
The fourth quarter got away from the Lakers a little bit. LaRochelle said that Rangeley must clean up the late-game complacency as the playoffs near.
“It’s about what do we have to do to get the lead up to 20, 22,” LaRochelle said. “Sometimes our offense gets discombobulated. When we play good, we’re pretty good, we are good. When we play bad, we’re pretty good at that, too.”
Meggison scored 11 in the fourth quarter and finished with a game-high 26 for the Hawks, but Boone hit two more 3-pointers in the first minute of the final frame to finish with 16 and the win.
For Boone, it was more about defense this time around against the Hawks.
“Last time we played them it was a slippery court so our defense wasn’t all there,” Boone said. “We got our defense down today and limited them to a lot less shots.”
The win means a lot to Rangeley, also, in the Heal point standings. With the win, the Lakers improve to 9-4 and move into fourth place in Class D South.
“It was a big win for us because they are worth a lot of points, and so maybe we can build on this win going forward,” LaRochelle said.
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