YARMOUTH — Close games are nothing new to the Fryeburg Academy boys’ basketball team. So when the Raiders were down late in the fourth quarter, they didn’t panic.
And when they were down by four in overtime, they dug in more.
The Raiders got four foul shots by Bobby Hallam in the final 11 seconds of overtime to rally past Yarmouth 58-55 Friday night in an interclass game. Fryeburg missed its first six foul shots in overtime before Hallam stepped up to put it ahead.
“Most of our games have come down to the final two minutes,” said Fryeburg senior guard Calvin Southwick, who sent the game into overtime with a deep 3-pointer with 1.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter. “I think our team has prepared for it. We have that mentality that the game is not over until that buzzer goes off. And we believe in each other.”
Fryeburg’s Kyle Littlefield and Yarmouth’s Cole Snyder chase down a loose ball. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer Buy this Photo
The victory lifted the Raiders to 5-6 in Class A South while the Clippers, who were without head coach Jonas Allen (illness), dropped their third in a row to fall to 5-7 in Class B South.
Yarmouth had beaten Fryeburg 33-29 on Dec. 28. And the Clippers seemed to be in control of this one. They hit 11 3-pointers – four by Jason Lainey (12 points) and three by Peter Psyhogeos (17 points) – but could never shake the Raiders.
Trailing by six with less than 2 minutes left in the fourth, Fryeburg got a 3 from Hallam and a steal and lay-up from Armel Maloji (19 points) to pull within a point. Yarmouth’s Will Cox hit two foul shots with 18.6 seconds remaining to make it 51-48.
The Raiders set up a final play but it broke down, forcing Southwick to throw up an off-balance deep 3-pointer. And it went in – his only basket – to send the game to overtime.
“I don’t score much period so it’s good to get one,” said Southwick. “It wasn’t a designed play but the play we had drawn up didn’t go the way we wanted and I had to take the shot. Luck put it in.”
In overtime, Yarmouth got baskets from David Riddle and Psyhogeos to move ahead 55-51, while the Raiders were missing all their foul shots.
Finally, William Hallam scored inside to make it 55-53. William Hallam would hit one free throw to pull the Raiders within 55-54. Bobby Hallam was fouled with 10.6 seconds left and hit both.
“I was just looking at the banners (on the wall behind the basket) trying to clear my mind,” said Bobby Hallam. “My mind is normally clouded when shooting free throws. That’s why I miss. But once I finally started to breath and focus, it just came naturally.”
Yarmouth would miss a foul shot with 10 seconds remaining and Bobby Hallam was again fouled, and hit those two as well.
“Huge, huge,” said Fryeburg Coach Sedge Saunders “We’re hoping we can ride this into next week when we’ve got three games that will tell us a lot.”
Barry Conant, who coached the Clippers in Allen’s absence, said the team had a lot to draw on.
“I like the fight we had,” said Conant. “There’s a lot of positives for us tonight and we need to stay focused on those positives and to get ready for the next game.”
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