Shaw’s 25, TA sink Biddeford

SACO — Wesley Snipes was wrong, white men can jump.

Thornton Academy forward Andrew Shaw proved that Tuesday night, throwing down a two fisted jam in the fourth quarter to stamp the exclamation point on the Golden Trojans’ 55-44 victory over Biddeford.

It’s the second time this season Shaw has performed the feat.

“I wish I could do it more, but whatever helps the team,” Shaw said.

The basket was the final of Shaw’s 25 points, a game-high. Shaw also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.

The victory comes in the first of two games between the rival schools.

“We knew they would come in and give us a fight either way,” Shaw said. “So we needed to come out and play well, play intense and make sure they don’t surprise us or anything. But they gave us a fight, we played well in the first half, they played better in the second half and gave us a fight.”

Surprisingly, it was the 3-pointer, not low-post play that sparked the Trojans to its 10th victory of the season.

Biddeford led , 9-4, in the first quarter, thanks to baskets from Travis Vigneault, Abdimajid Mohamed and Blair Cote.

Thornton responded with six quick points from forward Tom Littlefield, and Shaw began his scoring streak with two 3-pointers. By the end of the first quarter, the Trojans led 18-9.

Shaw’s hot hand continued in the second quarter, as he made two more 3-pointers en route to 19 points by the end of the first half. Going into the locker room, Thornton led the Tigers 36-21.

Biddeford, plagued by ball control and shooting problems in the first half, corrected those mistakes in the second half. Vigneault and Nick Simpson led the Tigers in scoring with 10 points each, and Mohamed made hustle plays all over the court, nabbing four rebounds and four steals.

Simpson said the Tigers just didn’t do enough collectively to beat the Trojans.

“We didn’t get back on defense, and that was the first thing that killed us,” Simpson said. “They pushed the ball in the first half, other than that, we were shooting horribly. We can hit shots in practice, here, I guess it was gametime nerves or something. We went 4-for-20 on threes. We don’t have anyone big, they’ve got people that are big. We tried our best. We played pretty good in the second half, wejust couldn’t pull out a win.”

In the second half, the Trojans were too hot to handle, and while Thornton had a size advantage (the average height of the Thornton starting five was 6-2, for Biddeford, 5-11), it continued to use outside shooting to further its lead.

“We were actually going to try to post up tonight against a smaller team,” Shaw said. “But when we get going, we might as well take what we can get.”

James Ek connected on two 3-pointers and made a highlight reel, coast-to-coast block of an attempted Vigneault layup off the backboard.

“I just knew I had a good beat on it, and I timed it perfectly, I just knew I was going to block it,” Ek said. “I did that once down in Kennebunk earlier in the year, but that one was better. The one in Kennebunk [the ball] came more down. Especially in a big time game like this, because of the momentum shift, that helped a lot I thought.”

Both Ek and Littlefield would supplement Shaw’s scoring with 12 and 10 points respectively.

The Trojans (10-3) have an important matchup Thursday against Windham. Windham jumped the Trojans for fourth place in the Maine Principal Association Heal Point standings last weekend. A win could possibly propel Thornton into the No. 3 seed.

“The way I’m looking at it is, if we can win out, we can be potentially [the third seed],” Ek said. “This next game is the biggest game for us probably the rest of the season. The Portland teams are going to beat up on each other. South Portland has a lot of tough games coming up, and they’re sitting in the third spot. If we win out, I’m confident we’ll get in the three spot, but we really need to beat Windham.”

Biddeford (7-7), ninth in the Heal Point standings, can still make the playoffs, but will need to win at least three of its last four games, which include sixth-ranked Portland and a rematch with the Trojans in the regular season finale on Feb. 5.

Simpson said the next few games are crucial for the Tigers.

“We’ve got Gorham in our next game, and we have to beat them and we have to beat either Portland or [Thornton] to get in the playoffs,” he said. “We’ve got to win.”

Battle of the Students

Along with the game, it was also the battle of the “Beak Squad” against the “Ek Squad”, the given names of the Biddeford and Thornton Academy student sections, which sat close to one another in the Linnell Gym stands Tuesday night.

Both sides took turns laying the verbal smackdown. The Thornton students made reference to the Trojans domination in football and basketball, while the Biddeford students referenced its domination in hockey.

The “Ek Squad” prevailed however. Shortly after Shaw’s dunk in the fourth quarter, the Biddeford students headed for the exit, to the chorus of “Na na na na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye” by the Thornton students.

It was the first Battle of the Bridge game for Ek, a transfer from Portland, after whom the group was named, who enjoyed the energy of the crowd.

“It was pretty good,” Ek said. “I thought the crowd was great, it was a great atmosphere today,” Ek said.

Both student bodies will have a chance to share their goodwill once again when Thornton Academy and Biddeford meet for a rematch Feb. 5 at the Tiger Gym.