Falmouth High’s boys’ basketball team is going back to the Class A championship game.
The top-seeded Navigators beat No. 3 Marshwood, 40-31, in the Class A South final Friday night at the Portland Expo. It was the third straight playoff game in which Falmouth held its opponent under 35 points.
Falmouth (17-4) advances to the state final next Friday at the Augusta Civic Center against North champ Brewer (20-1). A year ago, Falmouth lost in the state final to Cooper Flagg-led Nokomis.
“Hey, we’ll give it our best shot. We’ll see what happens. (Brewer) should be the favorites,” said Falmouth Coach David Halligan, in his 36th year.
The Hawks got 15 points from Andrew Perry, but no other player scored more than five.
“Ultimately we couldn’t score, and credit to Falmouth. They contested every shot,” said Marshwood Coach Bobby Pratt.
Marshwood (15-6) also lost to Falmouth in the 2022 regional final.
“Obviously you always want to win your last game, but what a season,” Pratt said. “Unbelievable senior leadership. I couldn’t be more proud of the team and what they did.”
Despite the low-scoring affair, Falmouth had three players in double figures. Senior guards Lucas Dilworth and Paul Dilworth each scored 11 points, and Judd Armstrong had 10.
The first half was played at a slow pace, particularly when Falmouth worked the ball around against Marshwood’s 2-3 zone defense.
The Navigators led at halftime, 18-13. Lucas Dilworth had seven points, three coming at the end of the first quarter on a shot from beyond the center court green lobster painted on the Maine Celtics’ court. He banked in the shot off an inbound pass with six-tenths of a second to play.
“Before we even inbounded. I said to my teammate, I told him to pass it to me, I’m going to shoot it from here and I’m going to make it,” Dilworth said.
In the third quarter, Lucas Dilworth started a 9-2 run with an inside bucket, patiently waiting for Marshwood’s shot-blockers to move by after up-fakes. Armstrong finished what constituted a big run with a 3-pointer to give Falmouth a 27-17 lead. Marshwood didn’t get closer than seven points the rest of the way.
“We have a whole starting lineup of seniors and we all want it very badly,” Armstrong said. “We’re very competitive. We think we can win it all.”
Paul Dilworth helped finish off the win with a 3-pointer and 5 of 7 free throws in the fourth quarter.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.