Wiscasset’s Josh Gabriele, left, dribbles along the baseline as Richmond’s Danny Stewart defends in Thursday’s MVC boys high school basketball game. (Eric Maxim / The Times Record)
WISCASSET — Entering the 2018/19 boys high school basketball season, Richmond coach Phil Houdlette knew it was going to be difficult replacing the points that graduated with his seniors from a year ago, most notably Zach Small and Matt Rines.
Through the first 11 games, the Bobcats have not been able to find that one consistent scorer that he knows will put in 20 points a game.
Sophomore Caleb Densmore took a big step towards grabbing some of those points, scoring a game-high 30, including a dozen in the fourth quarter as the Bobcats took down Wiscasset, 66-47, in Mountain Valley Conference play.
“We’ve struggled a little bit this year offensively,” Densmore said. “We’re all just trying to find our rhythm. It’s hard to replace those points from Matt and Zach.”
Richmond, coming off its second win of the season against Telstar on Tuesday night, was contested by the Wolverines (1-11) early on. The two squads traded baskets throughout the first quarter, and with Richmond leading 6-4, Wiscasset’s Billy Pinkham drained a 3-point basket to pull the Wolverines ahead.
Dakotah Gilpatric and Densmore put Richmond back in the lead before a Chris Loyola bucket knotted the score at 10. A Kenny Bing basket gave the visitors a 12-10 lead after one, despite the Bobcats turning the ball over seven times in the opening frame. Richmond outrebounded Wiscasset, 12-5, in the first eight minutes.
“If we don’t do a team effort and hit the boards with offensive rebounds and grab those defensive rebounds and push the ball, we don’t score. That’s how we’re going to score this year,” Houdlette said.
Richmond continued to struggle with keeping the ball and turned the ball over a half-dozen times in the second quarter, and the Wolverines capitalized. Senior Matt Chapman took control underneath, hauling in five offensive rebounds while netting nine of Wiscasset’s 14 second-quarter points.
“He’s a nice player, he works his tail off,” Houdlette said of Chapman. “He was matching Densmore with rebounds and points.”
Richmond’s Caleb Densmore, left, is defended by Wiscasset’s Matt Eckert during Thursday night’s boys MVC basketball game. (Eric Maxim / The Times Record)
Chapman completed a putback with under three minutes to play, and when the forward did it again with just under a minute left, the Wolverines tied the score at 23. Richmond’s Mason Blake connected on a pair of free throws and Chapman capped the scoring in the first half as the two team went into the locker room all knotted at 25.
Chapman and Densmore each had 15 points in the half, while Chapman grabbed eight first-half boards, and Densmore seven.
“I thought Wiscasset came out and played us really tough in the first half, they played really hard,” Houdlette said. “They have a few kids that can play ball. We may have wore them down a little bit in the second half, crashing the boards and pushing the ball a bit..”
Richmond came out on all cylinders in the third quarter. Bing paced the offense with his aggressive rebounding on both ends of the floor, while sinking nine third-quarter points. Matt Adams added eight points, including a basket from behind the arc that sparked a 16-5 run to end the third frame, with Richmond taking advantage of seven Wolverine turnovers.
The score stood at 51-38 through 24 minutes of play.
Densmore put the exclamation point on the game in the fourth with his 10 points, while hitting a pair of free throws and securing his 10th rebound of the game in the win.
When asked what the team will take out of Thursday night’s victory — and winning back-to-back games with a match with winless Carrabec set for Saturday (2:30 p.m.) — Densmore’s answer was plain and simple.
“The win,” said the sophomore with a huge smile. “We’ll look to continue our win streak this weekend.”
“I think there is a lot of potential here,” Houdlette added. “It’s all on them and how hard they want to work. If they work, and come to play, I can handle that. It’s when they don’t show up and the effort isn’t there, that’s tough.”
Adams finished with 12 points, while Bing ended his night with 11 points and seven rebounds for Richmond.
Wiscasset was led by Chapman’s 19 points before he fouled out in the fourth, while Loyola followed with 12 and Pinkham nine in the loss.
Richmond’s Mason Blake (24) is fouled by Wiscasset’s Matt Eckert on his way to the hoop in the first half on Thursday’s boy high school basketball game in Wiscasset. (Eric Maxim / The Times Record)
The Wolverines travel to Telstar (1-11) on Saturday for a 2:30 p.m. MVC tilt.
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