OLD ORCHARD BEACH — After Monday night’s 67-52 win over North Yarmouth Academy, Old Orchard Beach center Bryan Roberts thumbed through the team’s scorebook.

What was he looking for?

“Points,” he said.

The senior had a right to be nosey after scoring a career-high 22 points ”“ including 11 in the decisive fourth quarter ”“ and grabbing nine rebounds as the anchor of OOB’s zone defense to help the Seagulls pull away from the Panthers in the fourth quarter for a 15-point victory, and move to 4-0 this season.

“He played fantastic. I’m really proud of him,” OOB coach John Regan said of Roberts, who at 6 feet 1 inch is the tallest player in the Seagulls’ rotation. “He plays a lot bigger than his size and he rebounds well. He did that tonight.”

After threatening to pull away several times, the Seagulls finally did in the fourth as they started the quarter on a 13-2 run to open up a 51-38 lead. Roberts, of course, was right in the middle of it, scoring seven of those points and causing three big turnovers that all led to baskets in transition.

“Turnovers are big for our defense,” Roberts said. “We have to get a lot of those to get our offense rolling, especially me.”

The end of the decisive run was a perfect encapsulation of Roberts’ contribution on the night, starting with an NYA (1-2) inbounds pass under the OOB hoop.

Defending Panthers standout Chase Gendron, Roberts read the pass in and tipped it away from Gendron and into the hands of guard Eric Hogan, who proceeded to push the ball up the court. Hogan’s driving layup missed, but Roberts was there to gobble it up, then finished while getting hit on the wrist and knocked down the ensuing free throw to salt the win away.

“He’s one of our catalysts defensively because he has to play so solid inside,” Regan said. “When he does that we’re real good. And he’s so explosive when he gets the ball, he takes right off.”

Old Orchard Beach as a whole had taken right off to begin the game, holding the Panthers scoreless for nearly the first six minutes and opening up a 12-5 lead after one.

But NYA started to get its inside game going in the second as Gendron and El Tayeb Dahia ”“ who led the Panthers with 14 points apiece ”“ each scored six points in the quarter to help close the gap to 28-25 at the half.

Once again the Seagulls looked about to pull away at the start of the third, pushing the lead back up to 36-27 in just three minutes, but nine OOB turnovers allowed NYA back into contest before the fourth quarter sprint ended things.

Joey Gildard added 20 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter, for the Seagulls, while Evan Christensen added 11 and Hogan 10.

“I feel like our team, once we get ahead a little bit, we start slowing down and relaxing a little bit,” Roberts said. “We can’t do that. Everyone knew we had to take care of the ball. We weren’t doing that well before that, but people got their heads on straight and it worked out.”

The Seagulls will certainly have to cut down on the turnovers and play four solid quarters on Thursday, when they’ll face their toughest test yet ”“ and perhaps their toughest test of the regular season ”“ as they head to Portland to play in the sardine can that is the Waynflete School Gym.

The Flyers are also undefeated, beating their first three opponents by an average of 45 points a game, and feature one of the best players in the state in senior forward Serge Nyirikamba, who Roberts will have a big hand in trying to stop.

“We’ve got a big test on Thursday night,” Regan said. “They’re so athletic and long. We’ll have to play well and defend well, and we’ll certainly have to rebound well. You can’t give up second opportunities to that team and be in the basketball game.

“We’ll have our hands full, but we’re looking forward to it.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or cdunbar@journaltribune.com.