FREEPORT

At halftime of Friday night’s boys high school Western Maine Conference basketball game between Freeport and Fryeburg Academy, Bill Ridge and his team scrapped the defensive game plan — the Falcons were down 20 and something needed to change.

They switched out of a zone defense and were determined to “work harder than them” in a man-to-man setup in the second half.

The plan worked, as Freeport stuck around in the third quarter and controlled the fourth, but ultimately, the early deficit was too much to overcome, and the visiting Raiders took the game, 63-45.

Freeport (2-10) hit the first bucket of the game, but from there it was all Fryeburg Academy (4-8). Ben Darling, who led all scorers with 22 points, hit three 3-pointers in a row for the Raiders, and was then fouled on a fourth attempt. Nineteen of those points came in the first half.

Then it was Oscar Herras, who scored nine straight Fryeburg Academy points to close out the first quarter, bringing the score to 20-5.

“We didn’t necessarily not have effort,” Ridge said. “They were trying. But we didn’t have energy, which we define as something different. The loose ball, the box-out, the offensive rebounds. Fryeburg had the energy and we didn’t have the energy.”

Ridge said the zone defense is typically what keeps his team in games, calling it “our bread and butter.” It was a key part of both of the Falcons’ two wins this season, but on Friday, they were “slow on everything,” said Ridge.

The Raiders went on a 16-6 run to start the second frame, exposing the zone defense by quickly moving the ball around and finding an open shooter. Darling put up three more treys in the second, making two and getting fouled again on another.

“We started in our zone, and they basically shot us out of that,” Ridge said of Fryeburg Academy, which converted 46 percent of its shot attempts. “We didn’t attack shooters. We didn’t make our rotations like we typically do. That wasn’t a good showing for us defensively.“

Darling hit another 3-pointer as part of a 12-2 Fryeburg Academy run to begin the second half to end his evening.

The Falcons got things going after that, bouncing back with an 8-0 run after a pair of baskets from Brady LaFrance.

Freeport shot 41 percent from the field, but committed 20 turnovers in the loss.

“Offensively, we didn’t play all that well,” Ridge said. “We started being kind of weak with the ball. We weren’t confident. We were throwing up lazy passes. The going got tough and we went back to bad habits.”

Jack Davenport was the only player to reach double digits for the hosts with 10 points, while LaFrance and Bryan Lee split 14 more. Ten different Falcons scored.

Fryeburg Academy received 10- point and nine-point tallies from Cody Gullikson and Herras, respectively, and used the large first-half lead to cycle players into the game. By the end of the fourth quarter, 14 different Raiders had been onto the floor.

For Ridge, the biggest problem Freeport had defensively was closing down open shots, especially from the perimeter. Fryeburg Academy hit eight 3-pointers on the night, accounting for more than a third of its field goals. Tactically, he said it will be a focal point in upcoming practices.

“We’ve got to go over that zone,” Ridge said of his defense. “We weren’t making the rotations. If we were, they wouldn’t have had so many open threes. We let them get a lot of open shots and it was because we were slow. We’ve got to make sure we know where the coverage is and where those rotations are going.”

Ridge will also be looking to his nine seniors to turn the tide and carry the team for the rest of the season.

“It’s something they’ve got to figure out,” he said. “They’ve got to make sure they’re accountable for that. But I’m pretty confident. The seniors have responded well to a lot of adversity this year. They’ve won us some games. They’ve proven, to me at least, that they’re up for a challenge like that.”

Freeport is on the road next, playing Cape Elizabeth tonight at 6 p.m.

Fryeburg Academy 63,
Freeport 45

Friday, at Freeport
Fryeburg — 20 21 15 7 — 63
Freeport — 5 16 12 12 — 45
Fryeburg Academy — Oscar Saunders 2-0-5, Cody Gullikson 5-0-10,
Scott Parker 0-1-1, Ben Darling 6-4-
22, Nicholis L’Heureux-Carland 1-0-
2, Jace McKenney 1-1-3, Tucker
Buzzell 0-2-2, Jahmi Seely Brown 3-
1-7, Isaac Wakefield 0-0-0, Oscar
Herras 4-0-9, Joe Lebrun 1-0-2,
Cobey Johnson 0-0-0, Will Davis 0-0-
0, Roy Elal 0-0-0. Totals — 23-9-63.
Freeport — Ethan Sclar 1-0-2, Eli Fox
1-0-2, Nate Pelletier 2-0-4, Brady
LaFrance 3-1-7, Jack Davenport 4-1-
10, Matt Nielsen 3-0-6, Joey Burke 0-
0-0, Connor Dostie 1-0-2, Caleb Rice
0-0-0, Sakerian Morris 1-0-3, Bryan
Lee 2-2-7, Brandon Cass 1-0-2.
Totals — 19-4-45.
3-point field goals — (FA) Oscar
Saunders, Ben Darling 6, Oscar Herras; (Free) Jack Davenport, Sakerian
Morris, Bryan Lee.
Records — Fryeburg Academy 4-8,
Freeport 2-10.
Up next for the Falcons — Tonight at
Cape Elizabeth, 6 p.m.