PORTLAND – Cape Elizabeth sophomore guard Chris Robicheaw had a good feeling about his shot late in the Class B West final against Yarmouth Saturday afternoon.

“I just knew I had to take it,” he said after the game.

Robicheaw was as precise and confident in talking about the shot that buried the Clippers as he was when he let it fly. Cape (17-4) was up 44-35 in a physical regional final with Yarmouth (16-5) when Robicheaw dropped back into the left corner, took a pass and didn’t hesitate as he launched one towards the hoop. For a moment, the entire crowd at the Cumberland County Civic Center watched it sail – almost lazily – towards the rim.

Swish.

As the scoreboard showed a double-digit lead for the Capers for the first time since the second period, Robicheaw knew he had sealed Cape’s third trip in four years to the Class B state championship game as Cape captured the Western regional title going away, 61-47.

The Capers have one game left in the season, and it’s a

big one. This Friday night, the Capers will be back in Portland to face Eastern regional champion Camden Hills for the Class B state championship at 8 p.m. (for more on that game, see sports on page 7).

“It was a big one,” Robicheaw said. “It was an inside-out 3, and it was just routine. It was right there, and it just felt great. It was perfect. I was open, and I was just feeling it. That was probably the biggest shot (of my career).”

Robicheaw’s teammates were a bit less certain of Robicheaw’s shot selection – at least while it was in the air. Once it went through the net, according to senior captain Theo Bowe, who finished with 19 points, said he knew that the Capers were on their way back to the title game.

“A lot of people were worried about the fact that a lot of us had four fouls,” he said. “(Yarmouth’s Luke) Pierce had four, (Yarmouth’s Matt) Murphy had four, I had four and Joey (Doane) had three. Everyone was playing a little tentative. And then we look up and (Chris) is just hitting this big shot. When he put it up I am thinking, ‘Oh, maybe that’s not such a great shot.’ But then it goes in and it’s just, ‘There we go.’ That just ended it.”

And, if anything, Cape needed a decisive end. They deserved closure, particularly after the tight affair that the game had devolved into in the third period. The Capers had started the game on an 11-2 tear, highlighted by two early 3s by Doane. For a while, it seemed like every shot that Cape lined up fell. Doane, who had a game-high 20 points, and his team led 17-7 after one period, the buzzer sounding just six seconds after junior guard Matthew Pierce made an incredible steal off a Yarmouth inbounds and put in an easy deuce.

“I don’t know (what happened),” said Bowe, who was awarded the Pierre “Pete” Harnois Award as the tournament’s MVP. “We were just really hot to begin with, and I don’t think we could have ever sustained that – that would have been a really unbelievable game. But, we went a little cold. (Yarmouth) was playing great defense. It was a lot more of them just playing great defense than us going cold.”

That cold snap struck midway through the second. Cape had stretched its advantage to as high as 26-12 when Yarmouth’s Murphy hit a 3 to cut it to 11. It was the start of a 12-4 run by the Clippers, who had cut the lead to six by the break, now trailing just 30-24.

“We don’t typically score that much that fast, and I was kind of hoping they wouldn’t get some momentum,” said Cape Elizabeth Head Coach Jim Ray. “They got some, and we made a few mistakes, and kind of let them back in. Then it was nip and tuck the rest of the way.”

The third quarter quickly became a nail biter for the Capers, who scored only one point in the first 5:10. During that time, Yarmouth gradually chipped away, making it a single possession game when Luke Pierce hit a layup at 4:50 to make it 31-28. But the Capers held on, and gradually started to widen things back out, and with 2:10 left Bowe hit a jump shot to make it 33-28.

All the while, the Clippers – who had been patient and collected throughout the first half – were racking up foul after foul, Luke Pierce netting his fourth with 46 seconds left, and Murphy picking up his own fourth foul early in the final period. These setbacks caused the Clippers to noticeably tighten their game, when Cape rolled on, leading 39-31 at the buzzer.

“You allow Cape to get a little bit of a lead, and they are going to squeeze it out of you like they did tonight,” said Yarmouth Head Coach Adam Smith. “That caused us to rush a little more than we really had to. We had a couple of opportunities with the ball when we were down three, but we panicked in that situation, and that’s what happens in the Western Maine finals.”

The Capers maintained their seven-to-nine-point lead throughout the early part of the fourth, but never fully shook the Clippers until Robicheaw’s shot dropped through the rim. After that, Cape pulled away, rallying towards a date with destiny – and Camden Hills – at the state title game on Friday night.

“What got us back was the defense,” Doane said. “That gets us going. Good defense turns into offense. But definitely (keeping them at arm’s length) gave us an emotional edge. When Pierce and Murphy picked up their fourth, that (made us a little more comfortable). Pierce is a great defender, and he is definitely a threat on offense.”