KENNEBUNK — Kennebunk trailed by double digits for most of Friday night’s boys basketball showdown with Scarborough, but the Rams were not going to go down without a fight.
“This team never gives up … we always fight to the end,” said Kennebunk coach Dave Leal.
The Rams battled back from a 17-point halftime deficit to make it a 1-point game with 1:42 left. That would be as close as Kennebunk would get as the visiting Red Storm scored the game’s final six points to pick up a 67-60 victory.
“This was a great high school basketball game. It was a battle for 32 minutes. We knew it would be coming in,” Scarborough coach Phil Conley said.
Scarborough was led by Brian Austin’s career-high 38 points.
“That’s probably the best game I’ve ever had,” said Austin. “I was really getting some good looks and my teammates were doing a great job of getting me the ball and I was just knocking them down.”
The Red Storm, who were up 20-14 after one, started the second quarter on a 13-0 run and would eventually take a 44-27 lead into the break.
“I thought we executed our offense very well and Brian made some unbelievable shots. He was nothing but net … he’s one of the best shooters in the SMAA and you saw that tonight,” said Conley, who watched Austin score 27 points in the opening half.
The Rams would outscore the Red Storm 17-13 in the third quarter to cut the Scarborough lead to 57-44 and set up a wild fourth quarter.
The two teams traded scores to open the fourth, but Kennebunk would then go on a 11-0 run — led by a pair of 3-pointers from Kyle Pasieniuk — to make it 59-57 with 2:12 left.
Austin stopped the bleeding with a score, but Kennebunk’s Max Murray knocked down his third 3-pointer of the game to cut the lead to 61-60 with 1:42 remaining.
That would be as close as the Rams would get. Austin scored his final two points of the game with 1:08 left to make it 63-60 — and Paul Kirk and Nick Fiorillo both made a pair of foul shots to secure the victory.
“This was a fun game tonight. We needed this win bad and this is just going to give us more momentum going into the playoffs,” said Austin.
Leal was impressed with Austin, who isn’t the first player to go off when playing the Rams this season.
“This is the fourth time that we’ve had someone have a career night against us,” Leal said.

Murray, who finished with a team-high 26 points, had to deal with Fiorillo, who stands at 6-foot-8 and is one of the top big men in the state.
“It was a tough battle, but it’s fun coming up against great players like that. Being able to go 1-on-1 with him was very fun,” said Murray, who scored 18 points in the second half.
“He proved to me that he can play against any big guy in the state,” said Leal of his 6-foot-4 big man.
Cam Lovejoy added 16 points in the loss. The senior was honored before the game for scoring his 1,000th career point during a game last week.
Zack Sullivan added seven for the Rams, who dropped to 10-4 with the loss.
Fiorillo added 14 points and Kirk chipped in nine to help the Storm improve to 8-7 on the year.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 780-9017. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.