BIDDEFORD — The Biddeford boys basketball team is 4-0 in games either on the road or on their homecourt — Tiger Gym.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, they have been forced to play on the high school’s secondary court (Steve White Gym) because of repairs being done to Tiger Gym after a frozen pipe burst in the lobby and girls locker room back in mid-December.

Their stay at Steve White Gym has not been pleasant so far as the Tigers dropped their first game of the season to Falmouth there on Dec. 19 — and it didn’t get any better on Friday night.

The visiting Bonny Eagle Scots jumped out to a 10-point halftime lead and held on from there as they picked up a 47-37 victory over the Tigers.

Biddeford head coach Justin Tardif, who saw his team struggle from the floor in both losses at Steve White, didn’t have an explanation for their shooting problems in their temporary home.

“I don’t know. I really don’t have an answer for you on that because at worst case it’s a road game, and even on road games we shoot pretty well,” said Tardif. “It doesn’t matter … it’s just sometimes your shots don’t fall, and right now they haven’t been falling these last two home games. Hopefully that will turn around.”

Shooting from long-range has been a key to Biddeford’s success this season, but the Tigers made just a pair of 3-pointers in Friday’s loss.

“A critical piece to our ability to win games is the ability to knock down the outside shot. We weren’t able to knock down the outside shot, and anytime that we don’t shoot well, we will have a tough time winning the game. We’ve got to figure out other ways to be able to win basketball games when we’re not shooting well,” said Tardif. 

Biddeford was unable to get up-and-down the floor and push the pace against Bonny Eagle, which made a concerted effort to slow the game down, according to Tardif.

“We definitely want the pace up-and-down, and they definitely wanted the pace half-court and they kind of won the pace of the game,” Tardif said.

The Tigers, who are now 4-2 on the season, were led by Cody Saucier with 10 points. Jackson Oloya added eight points, and both Kyle Norton and Carter Edgerton finished with seven. Jerome Criado rounded out the scoring for Biddeford with five points in the loss.

Zach Maturo led Bonny Eagle with 12 points. Chase Graves chipped in 11 points and Connor Sirois finished with nine in the win.

“They’re a tough team. They are physical,” said Tardif of Bonny Eagle, which plays in the larger Class AA South. “They play against very good teams every single game. I think they have definitely had a tougher schedule than us, and I think that probably helped them out in tonight’s game.”

The Tigers will host another Class AA South team on Tuesday when they welcome in rival Thornton Academy — and Tardif is certainly hoping Tiger Gym will be ready to go.

“We would obviously prefer to play down in Tiger, but we’ll see what happens and if we’ve got to play here, we’ve got to play here,” said Tardif.

 — Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at [email protected] or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.