Bobby Pratt, the head coach of the Marshwood High boys’ basketball team, wasn’t exactly thrilled with his team’s Class A South quarterfinal matchup against Biddeford.
The teams had already played twice, the third-seeded Hawks winning both. But they were pushed each time by the 11th-seeded Tigers, having to rally in the fourth quarter in the first game, then winning in overtime in the rematch (again after a fourth-quarter comeback) just over two weeks ago.
“We didn’t want to match up with them a third time,” said Pratt. “They’ve very well coached and they play hard.”
Saturday afternoon, Marshwood made sure they’d be no suspense. The Hawks took control early and eased to a 47-30 victory at the Portland Expo. Biddeford didn’t score in the first quarter, falling behind 10-0, and never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.
“I’m just really happy for our guys,” said Pratt. “They worked really hard the last week to get prepared. Any time you can win a playoff game, it’s exciting and rewarding.”
The Hawks (13-5) will play Greely in the regional semifinals at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Expo. Biddeford finished 4-15.
Marshwood did a lot of things well. Pratt was especially pleased with his defense, which contested every Biddeford shot, and an offense that worked the ball well against the Tigers’ zone. The Hawks typically struggle against zone defenses, but against Biddeford they worked the ball well inside, resulting in many easy looks – and few turnovers.
“We really preached to not settle for outside jump shots against the zone,” said Marshwood senior Aiden Sullivan. “Which we didn’t do tonight. We worked the ball inside and we finished inside.”
Marshwood also had only nine turnovers – just three in the first three quarters while it built a 40-15 lead.
And as Biddeford Coach Justin Tardif said, the lack of Marshwood turnovers was critical.
“They didn’t make any mistakes,” he said. “There were no easy baskets for us. Everything we did, we had to work for. They’re so well coached and it showed tonight because there were no cheap points and no easy buckets on our end.
“We’ve had trouble scoring all year consistently. We need to manufacture some points, whether that’s in the press or getting a steal here or there. And we weren’t able to do that and that’s a credit to Marshwood and the execution of their game plan.”
Andrew Perry led the Hawks with 18 points, while Sullivan had nine (along with nine rebounds and four steals) and Chris Reuning eight (plus nine rebounds).
Pratt said the first-quarter shutout of the Tigers was a good indication of how hard the Hawks were contesting Biddeford’s shooters, especially Ayouba Fofana and Julius Silva, who each scored 10 points.
“I think that’s what we want to be known for defensively,” said Pratt. “We try to hold teams to 12 or under (each quarter). The message before was win each quarter, and we certainly set the tone with that first quarter.”
“We definitely preached defense all week,” said Perry. “We knew who their two main guys were and we really focused on shutting them down. Overall, I think we did a pretty good job.”
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