TOPSHAM – In any sport, at any level, it is tough to beat a team three times in a season. The Mt. Ararat boys high school basketball team had that task Tuesday evening when it hosted rival Morse in a Class A South prelim match.
The Eagles took the suspense away early, racing out to a 20-9 lead after one quarter, keeping the pedal on the gas while riding Jared Balser’s 30 points and 21 boards as they downed No. 9 Morse, 83-43 at Mt. Ararat High School.
“We didn’t want to end our season today,” senior Max Spelke said. “We’ve put in so much work this year, glad we could get this done.”
“This was a senior driven game, they didn’t want to end their careers tonight,” Mt. Ararat coach David Dubreuil said as it will be the seniors first trip to the quarterfinals.
The No. 8 Eagles (10-9) will face top-seeded Greely (15-3) in a quarterfinal clash on Friday at 7:45 p.m. at the Portland Expo.
The Shipbuilders (4-15) conclude their season after qualifying for the postseason following some key wins under returning coach Tom Maines first year back at the helm.
“We didn’t play the way we should have, we missed check outs and we missed open layups,” Maines said. “But hats off to Mt. Ararat, they played well.”
The Mt. Ararat wins against the Shipbuilders (55-50 and 56-55) in the previous two meetings did not come easy as both games went down to the wire between the two Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference schools.
After Morse’s Tom Warren tied the score at 5-5, senior Sean Roberts nailed a 3-point basket for the Eagles, bringing life to the Mt. Ararat bench and receiving a roar from the home crowd.
Balser took advantage of his size, as the six-foot-eight center was a menace underneath, grabbing 10 first-quarter rebounds, including six on the defensive end. The senior was able to parlay his offensive caroms into eight points in the opening quarter.
“It was very important to get Jared going tonight,” Spelke said. “Our offense centers around him so when he gets going, the rest of us feed off that.”
While Balser was working inside, Spelke and Will Kavanaugh each drained shots from behind the arc to extend Mt. Ararat’s lead to 20-9 after eight minutes.
“We started off with Brunswick very well as Jared got a lot of touches down low early on, so we wanted to do that tonight,” Dubreuil said. “We went away from that against Brunswick so we realized he needed those touches to get going to get us going.”
Coach Dubreuil was correct, as Balser took over in the second quarter, hauling in six more boards, including three more putbbacks, registering eight more points.
“Our inside-out game is what we really plan on,” Dubreuil said. “And with our 3-point shots and our floaters, those get us going.”
Morse fared better in the second frame, receiving 3-point baskets from Gabe Aucoin, Josh ter Mors and Dylan Orr, but the home was too much, with James Singleton grabbing a late rebound and putting it back in for a 37-25 Mt. Ararat lead at the break.
The Eagles were 4-from-8 from behind the arc, and held the advantage on the boards, 23-7. Roberts had five points, while Spelke and Damon each had four at the half. Damon also had six first-half rebounds.
Morse was led by Aucoin, as the freshman netted nine first-half points, followed by ter Mors five.

Dunks and snowing 3’s

While the snow began to fall outside, the Eagles were dropping 3’s from the sky, hitting their first four attempts from behind the arc, including back-to-back-to-back makes on three consecutive trips down the court. But it was the two thunderous one-handed dunks by Balser that propelled the Eagles to a 58-32 lead with just under three minutes left in the third.
Damon hit a pair treys during the run, while Spelke added his second of the contest, only his third 3-point basket of the season.
“He only made one all season, so to get a couple tonight and to spark our team, that was great,” Dubreuil said.
Morse turned the ball over six times after just as many in the whole first half, and the Eagles increased their lead to 62-36 after three quarters of play.
The teams were able to utilize their benches in the fourth, with Mt. Ararat being able to take its seniors off the floor and their last home game, Morse was able to put some of the future of Shipbuilder basketball into a playoff game.
“We have a great young core, we may have not had the success we wanted to this year,” said Warren. “But the next three years and the years to come, we’ll be a team to be reckoned with.”
The senior captain admired how his young teammates have grown and looks forward to their future.
“Look at the freshman and sophomores we have, and with two or three more years with Coach Maines, they’ll be great,” added Warren, as he finished the game with 11 points, including a perfect 3-for-3 from the line.
“I told my players that are returning that if they want to erase this bad memory, they know what they need to do and work at it,” Maines added.
Aucoin finished with 15 points, including 6-for-7 from the foul line, while ter Mors finished with six points. Senior Kaleb Jackson drained a 3-point basket for three points, while classmate Arius Eich finished with four rebounds for the Shipbuilders.
After Balser’s double-double, Damon scored 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds and had a pair of steals. Roberts followed with nine points and Kavanaugh and Spelke chipped in with eight and seven points, respectively as ten different players hit the scoring column for the Eagles.
Mt. Ararat was 8-of-16 from 3-point land and 11-for-15 from the charity stripe, hauling in 38 rebounds.

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