OLD ORCHARD BEACH — The Cape Elizabeth boys basketball team sank five 3-pointers in the opening quarter as the Capers pushed past the homestanding Old Orchard Beach Seagulls by a 65-50 score on Friday night.

Finn Bowe, who led the Capers with a game-high 18 points, would drain four 3-pointers in a 17-5 Cape Elizabeth run to begin the game. The Capers continued to fire away in the second quarter and would hit two more 3’s to make the score 36-16 at halftime.

“(Cape has) good shooters and they’re a very good basketball team, certainly well-coached, when they are making shots like that they’re going to be very hard to beat,” said OOB coach Mike Burke after the loss.

The Capers would eventually cool off from beyond the arc, and deployed their big man in 6-foot-9 Andrew Hartel in the third quarter. Hartel’s size was too much for OOB, as he scored 12 points in the third quarter to make it 54-32 Cape heading into the fourth.

“We talked about trying to defend the 3-point line, but then they dumped it off to a 6-foot-9 kid. It’s pick your poison,” said Burke. “Their bigs are big — our big is a young kid that we’re trying to bring along slowly.

The Seagulls showed some life at the beginning of the fourth, as they began the period by going on an 11-0 run. Cape Elizabeth’s starting lineup re-entered the game and would cruise to an 8-0 run to close the game and secure the win.

Hartel finished with 16 points to go with Bowe’s 18, while Nathan Mullen chipped in eight for Cape.

Ian Regan led OOB with 15 points while Kyle Allen scored 10 and Ryan Crockett nine.

Burke enjoyed seeing Bowe and Regan battle throughout the contest. 

“Well you obviously want to try to go out there an compete. Bowe is a very good player, I’ve got a really good player in Ian, it’s neat when you see those couple of guys trying to compete against one another,” said Burke.

Burke was also proud of the way his team fought against a tough Class B opponent.

“I’m proud of the way we battled … it is kind of a David versus Goliath night. I’m proud of the way the guys competed. When you have a very well-coached basketball team that also comes out on fire, they’re tough to beat,” said Burke.

OOB falls to 1-1 on the season while Cape improves to 2-1. OOB hopes to finish December strong as it prepares for the midseason grind after the holidays.

“It’s a quick turnaround, we’re going to take tomorrow off and come in on Sunday. We have one game next week then two weeks off so we have to be judicious on the way we get after one another, get on the road and scout some games and see how January unfolds,” said Burke.

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