Gray-New Gloucester had plenty of reasons to feel anxiety or doubt Wednesday at the Portland Expo.
A fourth-quarter scoring drought. Its best defender fouling out. Spurts of hot shooting by Freeport. Momentum swinging back and forth.
But those things hardly made the top-seeded Patriots sweat, and they held on to defeat the fourth-seeded Falcons, 62-56, in a Class A South boys’ basketball semifinal.
“Our team never gets worried,” guard Johnny Patenaude said. “When we’re down, when we’re tied, no matter what, we just stick together, and we’re so good — I mean, it’s hard to explain. We just stayed calm, did our thing.”
Gray-New Gloucester (18-2) has a chance to avenge its only loss of 2024 in the regional final against No. 3 Noble (16-4) at 8:45 p.m. Friday.
“We feel great,” Patriots Coach Ian McCarthy said. “I mean, obviously, there’s some stuff that we can clean up, but, you know, these guys have worked so hard. We’ve talked about this tournament all year long. We try to keep focused on one game at a time, but at the end of the day, it’s so much fun to play here and play with these guys. So we’re going to celebrate tonight, but back to the grind tomorrow.”
Freeport (14-6) made 11 shots from 3-point range, but since they hardly missed, it seemed like more.
“There was a few times when we could have put them away, and we just didn’t, and then they came down and made big shot after big shot,” McCarthy said. “I’d love to see what their percentage was, but I know it’s got to be high.”
The Falcons’ standout big man, J.T. Pound, made four of those 3-pointers, but he was limited to a pair of two-point field goals.
“That’s all Mr. Aidan Hebert, right there,” Gray-NG senior captain Carter Libby said. “He just is a beast. He really just locked him up. It’s not something you can teach … just an aggressive player, really good defender. It’s just awesome to have somebody just pick someone out and make sure to minimize their impact on the game.”
So it was a big deal when Hebert fouled out with 2:15 left, especially since the Patriots were in the midst of a 4-minute-plus scoring drought.
Libby admitted that his mind started to go to an 82-78 loss to Noble on Feb. 5, but other than that, the Patriots remained composed.
“I wasn’t super worried, to be honest,” Libby said. “Going back to Noble, I think we had two or three people foul out there at the end. That was honestly a little bit in the back of my mind, but just with the crowd and everything, and the way that we had been playing, I think I knew that we would get it done.”
The Patriots’ lead was down to 55-53 with less than a minute to play.
Patenaude finally ended the scoreless stretch with 31 seconds remaining. After an inbound pass following a jump ball at Freeport’s end of the court, Patenaude broke away from the defense and Nate Hebert passed to the streaking Patenaude, who finished a layup.
“He saw me cutting, and perfect pass, set me right up for the layup,” Patenaude said. “And I think that got us going a little bit.”
The Patriots then forced a 5-second call on a Freeport inbounds play, and all they needed to do was make their free throws. Which they did – Patenaude hit 3 of 4 and Nate Hebert sank both of his attempts.
Patenaude paced the Patriots with 18 points. Nate Hebert added 12, Noah Hebert had nine and Libby finished with eight.
Six of Libby’s points came during a key stretch early in the third quarter.
Each team had momentum swing in its favor in the first half. The Patriots scored the first seven points and led 17-11 after one quarter.
The Falcons stormed back in the second quarter, making four 3-pointers. They led by as many as four points, but a late 3 by reserve Colby Mitchell sent the game into halftime tied 32-32.
Freeport made two quick 3s to start the second half, but each time, the Patriots responded.
Libby’s second 3 of the quarter gave the Patriots a 41-38 lead. Noah Hebert made another. A few plays later, Patenaude stole the ball at one end and took it coast to coast for a basket.
“It was a huge momentum swing,” Patenaude said. “And I think it got the fans going, and when the fans are going, we’re going, too.”
Pound scored 18 points, Connor Slocum finished with 17, and Conner Smith made four 3s for 12 points.
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