AUGUSTA — Dirigo needed a few minutes to find its scoring touch, but once the top-seeded Cougars caught fire, there was no way for Waynflete to extinguish it.
Dirigo overcame a seven-point deficit in the second quarter and used a push early in the third to beat No. 4 Waynflete 55-37 Thursday night in a Western Class C boys’ basketball semifinal at the Augusta Civic Center.
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“We’d get a steal and they just wouldn’t give up,” Waynflete forward Joe Veroneau said. “They’d force us to turn the ball right back over, and they made some tough shots, and they were getting calls on their end and getting some free throws …
“They’re just an experienced team. They’ve been here before. We went on a nice run in the first half and they handled it well.”
Dirigo (18-2), the two-time defending regional champion, will face No. 2 Boothbay at 8:45 p.m. Saturday at Augusta in the regional final.
But before the Cougars could think ahead to the weekend, they had to overcome a shaky first quarter in which they went 2 for 13 from the floor as the Flyers (12-6) took a 13-6 lead.
“We came out in the first half and we were very tentative,” said Dirigo guard Josh Turbide, who scored 12 points. “We came out in the second half, we put more pressure on the ball because we knew they couldn’t handle the pressure well.
“We made a lot of turnovers and we were just making shots, too, which helped because in the first half, we couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.”
Dirigo forced turnovers early in the second quarter, and after Veroneau picking up his third foul with 6:08 left in the half, the Cougars tied the game at 13 on Caleb Turner’s layup off a turnover with 5:34 left. Then they took a 16-15 lead, their first of the game, on Travis Frost’s 3-pointer with 2:22 remaining.
The Cougars held the Flyers to four second-quarter points while taking a 19-17 halftime lead.
Dirigo scored 18 points in the third quarter and limited the Flyers to five points in the final 4:10 of the quarter to take a 37-26 lead, then added to it in the fourth by going 8 for 12 from the foul line.
“They’re just a well-coached team and they’ve got some great players,” said Veroneau, who finished with six points. “We had Max Belleau step up and score eight points and we tried to go on a run, but they’re … experienced, being in this game the last three or four years.”
Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be reached at 791-6415 or at:
rlenzi@pressherald.com
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