YARMOUTH — Wells shot its way back into a game against Yarmouth on Wednesday to keep within striking distance at halftime. But the Warriors shot themselves in the foot one too many times in a one-sided third quarter, as the Clippers rolled to a 72-51 win in a Western Maine Conference boys basketball game at Stroud Gymnasium.
Yarmouth jumped on top quickly, getting fast-break layups on its second and third possessions. The Clippers didn’t stop after that, hitting eight field goals in the opening quarter to jump ahead 22-11.
Yarmouth scored the first five points of the second quarter, but Wells senior guard Jake Moody hit back-to-back 3-pointers ”“ after going scoreless with just one field goal attempt in the first ”“ to cut the lead down to 27-17.
“I thought the game might have been over in the first half, but we didn’t (let it),” said Wells head coach Troy Brown. “We never gave up.”
Yarmouth’s David Murphy answered with a 3 of his own ”“ his third of the first half ”“ before Nate Booth answered back for Wells on the other end.
“We knocked down some shots. Bottom line is we hit a few 3-pointers in the second quarter, kids started loosening up a little bit,” said Brown.
Booth hit another 3-pointer and Chris Carney converted a three-point play as the Warriors looked to be heading into the locker room with just a single-digit deficit. But Murphy was fouled at the buzzer and made two free throws to extend the lead to 39-28 at halftime.
The shots they made in the second quarter didn’t fall for the Warriors in the third, but they continued to come in bunches for Yarmouth. The Clippers scored on their first three possessions of the half to make it 45-28 just 1:46 into the third quarter.
Wells had no answer, as the Warriors threw the ball away time after time, leading to easy buckets the other way for Yarmouth.
“We just made a couple turnovers that were unneeded, and they just got a couple easy baskets,” said Moody. “We knew coming out in the third we had to make a run at it, and we just didn’t do that.”
“We started doing the things that we’ve been doing all season: we give the ball away. We rushed. We took our time, I thought, in the first half,” said Brown. “They didn’t really make any adjustments; they didn’t have to. They just hoped that we’d make mistakes, and we did.”
The Clippers opened the quarter on a 9-0 run before Moody hit a jumper four minutes in. Moody made a floater with a minute left in the quarter for the Warriors’ only other field goal in the frame.
The fourth quarter opened with an ugly looking put-back by Yarmouth’s Adam Clark, as the Clippers dominated the glass ”“ especially on the offensive end ”“ all night. The second and third chances allowed 12 different Yarmouth players to score.
“Our worst thing right now, our worst enemy is boxing out,” said Brown. “We’re terrible on the boards. They killed us on the boards.”
“That’s where we lost the game. They probably out-rebounded us 4-1,” said Moody. “I think it just came down to them outworking us.”
Moody did his best to try and will the Warriors back into the game, scoring 10 of his game-high 20 points in the fourth, but he couldn’t find a teammate to follow the lead. From the start of the second half until the Wells starters found a permanent seat on the bench with 3:15 to go, Moody was the only Warrior to score any points.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to look for the open shooters, but in the third quarter, stuff just wasn’t going our way. So when stuff’s not working, you got to try and change it up a little bit,” said Moody. “I got some shots to fall at the end of the third and early in the fourth, but it was just too late.”
By that point, the only thing left to decide was the final score. It was another loss for a Wells team that needs a win or two in its final five games to make it into the playoffs. The Warriors are currently the first team on the outside looking in.
“We now know that Fryeburg is an imperative basketball game for us. We have got to win Friday night. We’ve got to,” said Brown. “That’s all there is to it, we’ve got to beat them.
“We’re still alive. We got breath.”
— Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or sports@journaltribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.
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