PORTLAND— A dominant second quarter was enough to push the Massabesic boys basketball team past Scarborough 67-52 in the Class AA quarterfinals at the Portland Expo on Thursday.

Tyrus Sprague Ripley led the Mustangs with 21 points while Ryan Gullikson chipped in 16. Weston Bergeron also scored an impressive 13 points.

Scarborough’s Emmett Peoples led the Red Storm with 19 points scored.

Both teams came out firing in the first quarter, scoring a combined eight points in the first 70 seconds.

The Mustangs lit up the scoreboard in the first half of the quarter with a handful of highlight reel plays, including an alley oop from Sprague Ripley off a pass from Dan Amabile. Sprague Ripley also collected a steal and converted it into two points.

However, Scarborough continued to grind and managed to slow down the Massabesic attack.

Thanks to five consecutive points scored by Peoples in a 29-second period, Scarborough took a brief 8-7 lead midway through the first.

The remainder of the opening period was back-and-forth, with four different lead changes. Massabesic took a narrow 16- 14 lead into the second.

The second quarter proved to be the difference for the Mustangs, as they got off to an excellent start going on a 14-0 run that included eight points from Gullikson.

Massabesic coach Chris Binette credited his team’s defensive effort in the second.

“We didn’t give up any points until the final minute and a half of the quarter. Defense is the name of our game, we just played really good defense,” said Binette.

Scarborough did not score until the 1:15 mark in the second. Despite the slow start, the Red Storm bounced back strong and scored five points in the final 1:15 and brought the score to 30-21 heading in to the halftime break.

Massabesic came out sharp in the third period, scoring their first four points in the opening 11 seconds. The Mustangs opened the second half by going on a 14-6 run, including two 3-pointers from Amabile.

Scarborough refused to let the Mustangs get comfortable, as they bounced back from the rough start and pieced together a 10-6 run in the later minutes of the period, bringing the score to 50-40 going into the final quarter.

The pace of the game slowed down in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, with both teams combining for only nine points.

Massabesic finished strong, outscoring Scarborough 17-12 in the final quarter, including six points from Gullikson in the final two minutes, to secure the victory.

Although many teams would prefer the first-round bye, Binette feels that it was good for his team not to experience a long break between games.

“I was happy with our third seed. It’s a long layoff for the first and second seeds so this is helpful. It’s the first game of the playoffs, it’s the first of us winning a playoff game. I had nothing but good things to say to the kids, but we need to tighten some things up obviously,” said Binette.

According to Binette, one of those things is communication.

“I was not happy with our transition defense and us not talking. We were not communicating, two guys would go for the ball and one would leak out for the layup– that’s bad communication.”

Overall, Binette and his team were happy to get the big playoff win.

“It’s the playoffs, (Scarborough) hung in there but we grinded it out. It was our first playoff win at the Expo in school history, we have had a lot of firsts this year. We are looking forward to playing our next game,” said Binette.

— Sports Staff Writer Alex Sponseller can be reached at sports@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 323. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.