It was raining 3-pointers in Wednesday’s boys high school basketball game between Richmond and Searsport. More specifically, Cody Tribbet was raining 3- pointers.
The Richmond junior reeled off eight triples on the night en route to a sizable halftime advantage that ultimately turned into a 68- 52 quarterfinals-clinching Class C South preliminary win.
With his team already up 42-26 at the halftime break, Tribbet fired off three more treys in the third quarter, finishing with a game-high 28 points for Richmond. The Bobcats used seven triples in the first half to build the lead, with Zach Small adding two, and Tribbet hitting five more.
“You penetrate, and if he’s open, you should get him the ball,” Matt Holt said of his teammate. “He’s a good shooter.”
“When someone’s got the hot hand, you want to keep finding them,” Richmond coach Jonathan Spear said of Tribbet. “He does a very good job. He kind of stays hidden for a little bit and then he steps into those spots. If they’re going to stay off him, then we’re going to feed it to him.”
No. 8 Richmond (12-6) was red hot from the floor, hitting over half its shots — 11 of which were from beyond the arc. The hosts ripped off 25 points in the second quarter, outscoring No. 9 Searsport
(12-7) by 13. Holt, along with Tribbet, led the way, scoring 10 of his 18 total points in the frame.
Multiple times, Holt and others crashed the boards and then quickly turned back to whip a pass back outside to a wide-open Tribbet for a triple.
“We started getting a groove,” Holt said. “Getting those in-and-outs, and we hit them.”
Big Small effort
Small chipped in with 11 of his 13 points in the first half, and despite second-half efforts from the Vikings, the Richmond lead was never less than 14.
“The last couple games we’ve played against them, they’ve done a very good job packing it into a zone, making us shoot from the outside,” Spear. “We hadn’t been all that successful against it, but over the last three or four games, we’ve been kind of getting the threes going. It was, ‘hey, let’s try to drive, and if we can get something on the inside, great. But if not, let’s kick it out to the wings and let’s hit that three.’”
The bulk of the Bobcats’ points came from quick ball movement and outside shots, but the home side controlled the glass too, hauling in 23 rebounds in the second half alone. Small set the tone with nine boards, and Brendan Emmons grabbed eight.
Bryce Shorey, who scored all of his 13 points for Searsport in the first half, got things going early for the visitors, scoring seven straight points to begin the game and converting a hoopand harm play at the end of the second quarter. But the Vikings cooled off immensely after a tight first frame, finishing just 27 percent from the floor on the night.
“They’re a very good team,” Spear said of Searsport. “They run their flex offense, but they’ve been very good at driving off of a one-on-one situation. We’ve really concentrated on it leading up to this. We’re playing good, solid one-onone defense, if they’re going to pull up for a shot, it’s going to be with our hand in their face. It worked out really well.”
Eight combined missed free throws in a row slowed the scoring down in the fourth quarter, where Searsport was hurling up long shots to try and cut into the deficit. Eric Phillips led all Vikings with 18 points on a pair of treys, and senior Troy Reynolds finished with 13.
The Bobcats, who split two regular season matchups with Searsport, are now riding a three-game winning streak heading into Monday’s quarterfinal contest with 17-1 Dirigo, the top seed in Class C South.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Searsport,” Spear said. “They’re a very good team. Well-coached. They had a great season. But, I’m happy to see my kids playing some of their best basketball. We knew that we had this in us, and we’ve just been waiting for it to come out, for everyone to be firing on all cylinders. It’s nice to see that.”
No. 8 Richmond 68, No. 9 Searsport 52
Class C South Boys Prelim
At Richmond High School
| Searsport | — | 14 | 12 | 15 | 11 | — | 52 |
| Richmond | — | 17 | 25 | 14 | 12 | — | 68 |
Searsport — Eric Phillips 6-4-18, Troy Reynolds 5-0-13, Barrett Grant 2-2-6, Bryce Shorey 4-3-13, Cody Parks 1-0-2, Connor Kneeland 0-0-0, Ben Powell 0-0-0, Kyle Moore 0-0-0, Charlie Spiegel 0-0-0, Malik Feurtado 0-0-0. Totals — 18-9-52. Richmond — Cody Tribbet 9-2-28, Matt Holt 8-2-18, Brendan Emmons 0-0-0, Zach Small 4-2-12, Tyler Soucy 1-1-4, Zack Marseglia 1-1-3, Matt Rines 0-0-0, Nick Anan 1-0-2, Nate Vintinner 0-1-1. Totals — 24-9- 68. 3-point field goals — (S) Eric Phillips 2, Troy Reynolds 3, Bryce Shorey 2; (R) Cody Tribbet 8, Zach Small 2, Tyler Soucy. Records — Richmond 12-6, Searsport 12-7. Up next for the Bobcats — Monday night in the Class C South quarterfinals against No. 1 Dirigo at the Augusta Civic Center, 9:30 p.m.
Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less