AUGUSTA — Top-ranked Portland High started running from the opening tip and never stopped. And now the Bulldogs are playing for another regional championship.
With Terion Moss scoring 18 points and Amir Moss and Griffin Foley each adding 14, Portland ran away from fourth-seeded Edward Little 70-43 in the Class AA North boys’ basketball semifinals Tuesday night at the Augusta Civic Center.
The Bulldogs scored six seconds into the game on a layup by Foley and kept pushing the tempo, leading by 13 after one quarter, 16 at the half and 21 after three.
“Being up here, late at night (the game started close to 10 p.m.), not a big crowd, we had to create some of our own energy,” said Coach Joe Russo. “We’ve got to go (94 feet) even though a 2-3 zone would probably be a better choice. We needed to bring energy ourselves.”
Portland (18-1) will play city rival Deering in the regional final at 8:45 p.m. Friday at the Augusta Civic Center. Portland beat the Rams twice in the regular season – 61-51 on Jan. 14 and 77-67 on Jan. 29.
Edward Little (11-9) lost to Portland by 18 in the regular season.
The Eddies led oh-so-briefly, a 5-4 lead on a 3-pointer by Austin Cox just 2:04 into the game. Then the Bulldogs took off. Terion Moss scored 10 points in the first quarter.
“Amir and Joey (Esposito) are the team leaders but Terion is the leader on the court,” said Russo. “We had a nice week together to make sure we were on the same wavelength and he did pretty well, only had one mistake.”
Portland, which won the last two Western Class A titles before being moved to AA North in the five-class realignment, survived a scoring drought that lasted 6 minutes, 27 seconds and spanned the second and third quarters. Edward Little was only able to cut six points off the lead to pull within 10. Once Amir Moss scored on an offensive rebound, Portland got running again. A 3-pointer by Foley at the buzzer ending the third quarter gave the Bulldogs a 51-30 lead.
Foley said the Bulldogs weren’t concerned when the lead went to 10.
“We know we can play our game when we need to,” said Foley. “We can step up and make big-time plays, big-time shots.”
Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at:
mlowe@pressherald.com
Twitter: MikeLowePPH
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