BAILEY JOHANSEN (42) of Richmond attempts to put up a shot against Pine Tree Academy’s JP Tshamala during Wednesday night’s Western Class D basketball game in Richmond. The Bobcats took the Western D victory, 58-40.
After starting the season 4-0, the Richmond High School boys basketball team found itself heading down a road that had a “wrong way” sign posted in the middle of it, dropping its previous four games for an even 4-4 record.
RICHMOND BOBCAT ZACH SMALL (34) drives to the net while being defended by Pine Tree Academy’s Justin Pelletier during Wednesday night’s contest in Richmond. The Bobcats improved their record to 5-4 with a 58-40 win.
“This is huge for us,” Richmond (5-4) head coach Jonathan Spear said about his team’s win after the game. “We played some tough teams in that slump, in our last four games, but at the same time we went up to Forest Hills and I thought we played very well against them. It was the best team basketball I think I’ve seen us playing yet.
“I didn’t want to have a letdown coming into this game, and coming back home and just kind of thinking ‘you know we’ll be all set.’ We came out in the first half and didn’t look very good, so it was huge for us to come out and recover from that in the second and get the ‘W’ because we need to get back on that winning side.”
The Bobcats jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the first quarter and took a 20-16 advantage into the half. However, Richmond was only able to covert 8-of-24 shots from the field, while turning the ball over 11 times.
Though, a positive factor for the Bobcats in the first half included holding the Breakers to a 1-for-10 performance from the field in the opening quarter, as well as going on multiple runs, including a 7-0 spurt to open the game and another 5-0 run in the second quarter to keep the edge.
“We were flat in the first half,” Bobcats sophomore guard Cody Tribbet said. “We just turned it up and played the way we should.”
From beyond the arc
The second half saw a much different ball game than what was shown in the first two quarters. The Breakers struck first when Griffin Verrill sunk a free throw and then rebounded his own missed foul shot to put up another two points.
Richmond didn’t appear to be affected by the quick start by Pine Tree Academy (4-6), going on a 15-3 run over the course of the next six minutes, with Tribbet contracting the hot hand from the 3-point arc, sinking three treys in as many attempts, which gave way to a contagious scoring effort by the rest of the team.
“They know what they got in the kid that kept hitting the ‘3s,’” Pine Tree coach Roger Wilday said. “I think he might have sunk five ‘3s’ in a row. Their rotation just wasn’t there to give in. Other than that I think we played well with them.”
“That’s how our team is. If we go out and get a couple shots off right off the bat we tend to catch fire,” Spear said. “If we go out and get off to a slow start like we did in the first half than you can see what it turns into.”
Tribbet drained two more 3-pointers at the start of the fourth quarter, and freshman forward Zach Small took over the reigns, scoring 12 of his 16 total points in the final frame, with six points coming via the 3- pointer to bring the team’s total to nine on the night.
A force that made his presence known in the paint on defense was senior center Bailey Johansen, who collected a game high 15 rebounds, five of which came in the offensive zone.
“Hopefully we keep the intensity rolling, win a few more games and get ourselves in a good position heading into playoffs,” Tribbet said.
“We have to continue playing like a team, continue to play better defense and recognizing that someone has a hot hand right now,” Spear said. “We got about five players that we can go to who got the hot hand, and whoever has it, let’s keep going to them.”
JP Tshamala led the way for the Breakers with 17 points, with Chris Wilday adding 12 of his own. The Bobcats concluded with a 23- for-57 shooting performance, while the Breakers were held to just 35 percent from the floor at 16-for-45.
The Bobcats continue their season with the first of two East-West Conference weekend home games with Vinalhaven, beginning on Friday at 7 p.m. Richmond and Vinalhaven hook up again on Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
Richmond 58,
Pine Tree Acad. 40
At Richmond High School
Pine Tree Acad. — 3 13 9 15 — 40
Richmond — 9 11 18 20 — 58
PTC — Griffin Verrill 2-1-7, Zach
Owen 0-0-0, JP Tshamala 8-1-17,
Chris Wilday 4-2-12, Zach Falter 0-0-
0, Jon Krebs 0-0-0, Frank Hodson 0-
0-0, Justin Pelletier 1-0-2, Totals —
16-4-40.
Richmond — Cody Tribbet 6-0-17,
Brendan Emmons 1-0-3, Tyler Soucy
1-0-2, Cameron Emmons 3-1-8, Bailey Johansen 4-0-8, Nate Vintinner 0-
0-0, Zach Small 6-2-16, Matt Rines
1-0-2, Nick Anan 1-0-2, Nate
Kendrick 0-0-0. Totals — 23-3-58.
3-point field goals — (PTA) Verrill 2,
Wilday 2; (R) Tribbet 5, Small 2, B.
Emmons, C. Emmons.
Records — Richmond 5-4; Pine Tree
Acad. 4-6.
Up next for the Bobcats — Friday at
home against Vinalhaven, 7 p.m.
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