KENNEBUNK — Most teams have one or two players that they count on to handle most of the scoring — the Kennebunk Rams are not most teams.
Kennebunk has plenty of offensive weapons and any of the Rams’ starters could go off on a given night.
On Tuesday night it would be Max Murray and Kyle Pasieniuk taking over for the Rams as they combined for 41 points to lead Kennebunk to a 78-65 win over the visiting Biddeford Tigers.
Pasieniuk would hit six 3-pointers as he finished with 20 points in the win.
“When he’s hot, no one can touch us I think,” said Kennebunk coach Dave Leal. “Our opponents don’t really focus on him. They focus on (Murray), Cam (Lovejoy) and (Zack) Sullivan, but when he’s open I think he’s one of the best shooters I’ve ever seen in high school.”
Pasieniuk certainly had the hot hand on Tuesday.
“I was feeling it. I came off the screens from my teammates, I was open and they trusted me to make the shot and I made the shot,” said Pasieniuk.
The junior sharpshooter believes the Rams’ loaded arsenal makes things difficult on opposing teams.
“It just makes us more versatile. We have five guys on the court that can all score the basketball. It makes it a lot harder to defend and makes it easier for us,” said Pasieniuk.
Biddeford coach Justin Tardif confirmed Pasieniuk’s hypothesis.
“That’s why it’s tough to defend them because you have no idea who’s going to score 20 or 25 for them,” Tardif said. “If one kid is having an off night, it doesn’t matter to them because they have a couple other guys who can just score and shoot it really well.”
While Pasieniuk was cashing in from the outside, Murray was a force on the inside as he finished with a game-high 21 points in the win.
The Rams, who led 44-23 after the first half, would also get 11 points from Lovejoy and 10 from Sullivan. Ariel Calandri chipped in seven and Adam Lux finished with five.
Leal loves seeing plenty of Kennebunk players get into the box score.
“We have a team rule — if you’re open, shoot it. We like to score a lot of points,” Leal said.
After scoring just 23 points in the first half, the Tigers would play much better in the final two quarters — including outscoring Kennebunk 21-11 in the fourth.
“We made some shots in the third and fourth quarters and if we could have put that into the first and second quarter that would have given us that confidence,” said Tardif. “There’s no question when we weren’t making our shots that definitely impacted our defensive intensity and kind of snow-balled from there.”
Cody Saucier led Biddeford with 16 points and Carter Edgerton added 14 points. Ashton Crowell chipped in 12 points, while Scott Kelly finished with nine and Alex McAlevey had eight in the loss.
The Tigers’ postseason hopes are most likely gone as they are now 4-11 and have three games left with struggling teams that aren’t worth a lot of points.
“We want to finish strong. We think we can do that and win our last three and get ourselves to 7-11. We were 1-7 to start the year, if we can finish the year 6-4 and make a lot of progress that would be really good for us,” said Tardif.
Tardif has been proud of his team’s ability to fight through a disappointing campaign.
“In terms of their effort and intensity, it’s been one of the best groups I’ve ever coached,” said Tardif.
Kennebunk (11-4) has secured a playoff spot, but now the Rams are looking to peak at the right time.
“We’re just getting started. We want to get to our best come tournament time and we’re just going to keep climbing,” said Pasieniuk.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 780-9017. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.