Boys Basketball

Falmouth 57

Cape Elizabeth 48

Despite a valiant second-half effort, Cape Elizabeth couldn’t overcome a deep first-half hole, falling to Falmouth at home, 57-48, on Saturday.

After scoring only three points in the second quarter, Cape trailed, 28-11, at halftime.

“We have to put away that game,” Falmouth senior Jesse Hugo said after allowing Cape to come almost all the way back in the second half.

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Falmouth extended its lead to 33-13 early in the second half, but second-chance points by Tommy Ray and Nick Goodykoontz kick-started Cape’s offense. A full court press began to force Falmouth turnovers that led to Cape points.

Eventually, a 3-pointer by Ray and a free throw by Johnny Messina cut the margin to six, 50-44, with 3:20 remaining in the game.

That was as close as the score would get.

Ray led the second-half charge with 14 of his team-high 18 points. Burks scored 11 of his 14 in the second half.

“We have to play with intensity,” Cape Elizabeth coach Jim Ray. “Develop that mentality; that’s the challenge. It’s a blue-collar sport with white-collar kids, we have to make that transition pretty quick or it will be a tough season. There are some teams out there that can play.”

Cape trailed by 11 early, but appeared to be gaining momentum as the first quarter came to a close. Burks grabbed a defensive rebound and threw an outlet pass to Austin Brown at mid-court. Brown then laced a pass to Ray for an easy layup.

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Moments later Ray returned the favor, finding Brown, who finished with a reverse layup, under the basket to pull the home team within seven.

Burks closed the quarter with two emphatic blocks on the defensive end, the second on Falmouth’s Michael Doyle as time expired.

Unfortunately for the Capers, the momentum didn’t carry over into the second quarter. Falmouth held Cape scoreless for almost six minutes before Burks sank one-of-two free throws.

Cape faced undefeated Traip Academy Tuesday evening and they play at York Friday.

*****

The South Portland High boys basketball team improved to 2-1 on the year following last Friday night’s 58-34 win at Biddeford. The Riots had a 17-13 lead after the first period and they kept adding to that advantage in the next three quarters.

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Senior forward Coleman Findlay did most of the damage for the Red Riots as the visitors took control of the game in the second half with a dominating presence under the boards. Findlay finished with a game-high 26 points.

Senior guard Matt Findlay contributed with 12 points and freshman Keegan Hyland chipped in with 11.

Scarborough fell to 2-1 with a 74-63 home loss to Deering last Thursday evening. The defending Class A state champs grabbed a 10-point lead after the first quarter at 25-15 and they pulled away with a 17-9 third quarter run.

Hitner was the Red Storm’s high scorer with 20 points. Pogar added 11 points and J Philbrick poured in 10 points.

On Tuesday, Dec. 12, Scarborough defeated the Rams on their home court, 48-47, in overtime.

“It’s a rivalry game,” Scarborough junior Andy Pogar said. “Beating Gorham is awesome but it’s a stepping stone. This is something we are going to learn and build from.”

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Pogar scored all but one of the Red Storm’s six points in overtime, taking over after senior point guard Jason Philbrick fouled out 22 seconds into the extra frame.

“That’s when it counted most right then,” Pogar said. “I just wanted be more aggressive. I was being soft throughout the whole game.”

“We knew we had an advantage inside with (Pogar),” Scarborough coach Matt Townsend said. “It was just a matter of getting the defense spread out a little bit so we could get angles to pass to him. In the first half they packed it in pretty well and he really didn’t get many good looks.

“The guys did a good job of being unselfish and finding him.”

Pogar finished with seven points.

The Rams trailed by four with less than 20 seconds to play in regulation. Gorham’s Jamie Lamontagne hit a jumper in the paint to pull the Rams within two, but Philbrick knocked down one-of-two free throws to put the margin back at three with 13 seconds remaining.

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Gorham called a timeout to set up an in-bounds play from its own end with 10 on the clock. Center Mike Foustoukos took the pass just beyond the 3-point line. With Andrew Dean covered in the far corner he found Andrew Arena on the near-side baseline.

Bank!

While Arena didn’t call glass, he used it. The junior launched an acrobatic shot off the backboard and in to tie the score at 42 with three seconds on the clock, sending the home crowd into a frenzy and the game to overtime.

“I thought we defended it pretty well,” Townsend said. “It was a good shot.”

Although Pogar took control in overtime for the Red Storm, the score was tied entering the final minute of the extra period. Garrett Alofs broke the stalemate in Scarborough’s favor, sinking a free throw with three seconds left.

Seconds earlier Dean had a chance to put Gorham ahead by two, but missed a tightly contested runner in the paint.

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“Dean plays hard,” Jenkins said. “He played all 36 minutes. He had a chance at the end. We had the ball in his hands and he tried to make a play; that’s what we wanted. We wanted our best player to make a play at the end of the game, sometimes it doesn’t work out.”

Dean led all scorers with 24 points – 11 of which came from the free throw line. Gorham shot 19-29 from the charity stripe.

“They really like to spread you out and take you off the dribble,” Townsend said. “We just didn’t do a very good job of adjusting to the hand-check calls. They were calling them pretty tight and we didn’t do a very good job adjusting. A program like Gorham, they are going to make free throws.”

Philbrick led Scarborough (2-0) with 12 points – nine of which came in the third quarter – before fouling out. Sophomore Ian Philbrick took over the point guard duties in his brother’s absence.

Scarborough’s top scoring threat, Chris Hughes, has yet to play this season after suffering an ankle injury in the Red Storm’s final preseason game.


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