SOUTH BERWICK — Dawson Casey scored a career-high 25 points Tuesday night to lead eighth-seeded Marshwood past ninth-ranked Kennebunk 63-54 in a Class A South boys’ basketball prelim.
Marshwood (10-9) will meet top-ranked Greely (15-3) in a quarterfinal at 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Portland Expo.
Marshwood handed Greely one of its three setbacks on the season, defeating the Rangers 66-52 on Jan. 22 at Marshwood High.
“We’ve beat (Greely) before so we’re going to go up there with confidence,” said Marshwood Coach Mike Zamarchi. “We respect them and they have some really good players, but I like our chances.”
Casey scored eight points in the first quarter and 10 in the fourth.
“I hit the first three shots and it just continued,” said Casey.
Point guard Ryan O’Neil added 16 points with seven assists and disruptive defense for Marshwood.
“Me being a four-year player, I’m the point guard so I need to lead my guys,” said O’Neil. “I need to have them on my back. So I’ll do whatever I can to get them open so they can succeed.”
“(O’Neil) plays the whole game, never comes out, and plays defense and offense. That goes unnoticed a lot,” said Zamarchi.
The score was 16-16 after the first quarter and Kennebunk (9-10) led 28-26 at the half.
“Coming out of the first half we knew we needed to step it up; we knew we had to step up our defense and rebound more,” said O’Neil.
With the score 35-35, the Hawks used a 10-0 run to close out the third. Ben Beers buried a corner 3 and then, leading 40-35 with 50 seconds left in the quarter, knocked down another 3, this time from the wing.
“We knew (Beers) was their shooter so we talked about not helping off of him. The minute that kid gets space, he’s going to knock it down,” said Kennebunk Coach Barrett Belanger.
The Hawks outscored the Rams 17-7 in the third quarter.
“Beers hit a couple big 3s, stretched it out, and Dawson (Casey) was still getting points. When we make shots, we’re tough,” said Zamarchi.
“On defense, we located shooters better (in the third).”
Beers, who finished with 10 points, Casey, and O’Neil had 31 of Marshwood’s 37 second-half points.
Trailing 51-43 with four minutes left in the game, Kennebunk freshman guard Cameron Lovejoy hit a 3 to cut the deficit to five, and on the next possession he knocked down a shot to bring the Rams within three with 3:31 remaining.
Lovejoy scored nine of his 15 points in the final quarter.
“(Lovejoy) got hot there for a while but we made him work for most (of his shots),” said Zamarchi.
That was as close as Kennebunk would get. The Hawks extended their lead to seven just one minute later on a three-point play by Zach Mitchell.
“Mitchell played hard on the defensive end and made that one big play where he got the three-point play, which was big,” said Zamarchi.
Kennebunk was led by Zach Mackinnon, who dropped 17 points despite foul trouble.
“(Mackinnon), our glue on offense, had to sit for the majority of that third quarter with foul trouble. Foul trouble dictates things,” said Belanger.
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