FREEPORT

It’s been a season that some members of the Freeport High School boys basketball team might soon want to forget.

The Falcons have dropped their first seven games of the season, including Friday’s 67-44 Western Maine Conference loss to the Kennebunk Rams (3-4).

“We didn’t play with nearly the level of enthusiasm and intensity we need to have to play at the varsity level, that’s pretty much it,” coach Matt Reid said after the game.

Junior forward Jack Davenport shared similar feelings as his coach, stating that he and his teammates need to find a way to stick through an entire game and remain motivated.

“I see myself as trying to give the team motivation,” said Davenport, who totaled 18 points on the night, 11 of which came from the freethrow line. “As far as our team, tell them ‘it’s not over even if we are down by 20 points’ or whatever, tell them ‘it’s not over, we’re still in this, play your hardest.’”

Contrary to the end result, the Falcons controlled a majority of the first quarter, jumping out to an 11-8 lead after the opening frame all thanks to an initial 6-0 run to start.

The Rams hit the boards with 4:48 remaining and battled back to stay within shouting distance of Freeport, cutting the deficit to just three points.

Rams Explode

The icing on the cake came in the second quarter when Kennebunk found a way to knock off 33 points to take a commanding 41-17 lead in to halftime.

After both teams exchanged missed shots, the Rams started their run, dropping 22 points before the Falcons first basket at the two-minute marker. The largest force came from Rams junior guard Zach MacKinnon, who tossed up three 3-pointers as part of a 17-point first half.

“You need to have motivation in order to win a game,” Davenport said. “If you don’t, you might as well not play.”

“This (game) was a big step backwards in my opinion,” Reid said. “I think we had a pretty good showing versus Wells before the break (64-63 loss). We’re in a situation now in the season where we have three games next week, it’s a lot of just one practice, you got to prepare for that opponent and then go from there.

Kennebunk 67,
Freeport 44

At Freeport High School
Kennebunk — 8 33 11 15 — 67
Freeport — 11 6 13 14 — 44
Kennebunk — Dakota Ewy 0-1-1,
Zach MacKinnon 9-6-30, Travon
Bradford 6-2-14, Nick Bush 1-0-3,
Jack Lapham 7-1-15, Justin Wiggins
0-0-0, Ryan Guevin 0-0-0, Ryan
Coughlan 1-0-2, Jack Kiley 0-0-0,
Patrick Grady 1-0-2, Alex Hussey 0-
0-0, Sam Heikkinen 0-0-0, Totals —
25-10-67.
Freeport — Ethan Sclar 1-0-2, Matt
Nielsen 3-0-6, Eli Fox 2-0-5, Jack
Davenport 3-11-18, Brendan Qualls
1-3-5, Connor Dostie 1-0-2, Aidan
Hall 0-0-0, Caleb Rice 0-0-0, Nate
Pelletier 2-2-6, Totals — 13-16-44.
3-point goals — (K) MacKinnon 6,
Bush; (F) Fox, Davenport.
Records — Kennebunk 3-4; Freeport
0-7.
Up next for Freeport — Tuesday at
Poland, 6:30 p.m.

“It’s still going to be a one day at a time approach, hopefully something clicks with them mentally as far as how to play and really play aggressive.”

With the Falcons trailing by 24 points heading into the second half, something needed to change. Though the final score resulted in a 23- point differential, Freeport managed to win the third quarter 13-11, going 4-for-9 from the floor, while sinking 4-of-5 foul shots.

The fourth quarter saw much of the same action. However, Kennebunk kept it close to hold on to its strong lead, with MacKinnon continuing his dominance, dropping two more 3-pointers to help the Rams capture a 15-14 quarter advantage.

Davenport’s six freebies out of eight attempts led the way in the final frame for the Falcons, while the forward added seven more points.

“He’s been doing a good job,” Reid said of Davenport. “We had some fouls there in the second half where we were trying to take advantage of that, taking it to the paint and being aggressive and getting to the free-throw line and trying to score.”

The Falcons’ next opponent comes on Tuesday against the Poland Knights, a team they fell to in the season opener, 60-43. However, Reid said that playing with intensity is the only thing that is going to get his team a win.

“That’s what we need to see, if you don’t have that than it doesn’t matter what else you do,” he said. “It’s not going to just magically happen. We need to figure that piece out. We can do anything from offense to defense, plays, whatever, it doesn’t matter, if you don’t bring that energy level, especially with our schedule and the conference that we’re in it’s not going to happen.”

MacKinnon had a gamehigh 30 points for Kennebunk.