Let Waynflete get loose and you’ll soon find yourself in a game of Catch ‘Em If You Can.

Poland learned that lesson the hard way as the Flyers soared to a 76-49 win over the Knights in a Western Maine Conference boys’ basketball game Thursday night.

Class C Waynflete (8-1) outscored Class B Poland 20-9 in the second quarter and 20-10 in the third to put the game away. The win helped the Flyers bounce back from their only loss of the season, when Lake Region scored on a free throw with 1.7 seconds left to pull out a 42-41 decision at Naples.

“We took the loss at Lake Region pretty hard and I had to remind the guys that there’s still a lot of basketball to be played,” Waynflete Coach Rich Henry said. “We wanted to try to play at a faster tempo. The kids put forth the effort and were focused and ready to go.”

Milo Belleau scored 12 of his 16 points in the middle two periods to lead the Flyers. Will Nelligan added 14 points on four 3-pointers and two foul shots. He scored the Flyers’ first 11 in the fourth quarter to put Waynflete up 66-30 with 6:49 to play. Flyers 6-foot-4 forward Yai Deng had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Poland (6-6) was tough on the inside, led by 6-2 forwards Alan Young (17 points, seven rebounds) and John Fossett (12 and 3).

The Knights, who had a four-game winning streak snapped, looked to be right in it in the opening minutes with Young collecting five offensive rebounds and guards Derek Michaud and Adam Mocciola stepping out to deny the Flyers the 3-point shot, holding the score to 7-5 with about 3:30 left in the quarter. The Knights could have had the lead at that point, but several of their shots rimmed out.

“They shocked us early and took it to us,” Poland Coach Tyler Tracy said. “We had great looks early on, but we had five or six shots halfway down that came out, that rattled us. We got a little frustrated, broke down a little and they fed off it.”

Waynflete’s press started to force turnovers (12 while giving up five in the first half, with a 19-15 edge overall) and went on an 8-0 run to lead 15-7 after one quarter.

“We haven’t really run our press much this year, but once we got it going that’s when we can get into our tempo, which is fast break,” said Belleau. “Once we get into that tempo, we can really turn up the scoring.”

The Flyers started to show their athleticism and offensive balance in the second quarter, stringing together two 9-0 runs to lead 35-16 at the half.

“We got more open shots because we drove to the basket early on, so they had to watch for that,” said Waynflete guard Harry Baker-Connick, who had 13 points, six rebounds and three assists and a steal. “We just moved the ball a little quicker and threw some fakes to get them off balance.”

They opened the third with an 11-0 run on the way to a 20-10 edge in the period and a 55-26 lead entering the fourth quarter. Both teams then turned to their reserves, and the Knights outscored the Flyers 23-21 in a back-and-forth final 8 minutes.

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