Greely junior Matt McDevitt shoots a 3-pointer over Yarmouth senior Devin Shields-Auble during the Rangers’ 72-57 victory Tuesday night. McDevitt made eight of Greely’s 15 3s on the night.

Chris Lambert photos.

More photos below.

BOX SCORE

Greely 72 Yarmouth 57

Y- 7 8 22 20- 57
G- 20 19 25 8- 72

Y- Medenica 7-6-21, Hagerty 3-4-12, M’Bareck 4-0-9, Shields-Auble 4-0-8, O’Donnell 1-0-3, Darling 1-0-2, Harnett 1-0-2

G- Bagshaw 8-4-27, McDevitt 8-0-24, Twitchell 5-0-10, Soule 1-1-3, Brown 1-0-2, Gauvin 1-0-2, Normandeau 1-0-2, Williams 1-0-2

3-pointers:
Y (5) Hagerty 2, M’Bareck, Medenica, O’Donnell 1
G (15) McDevitt 8, Bagshaw 7

Turnovers:
Y- 13
G- 22

FTs
Y: 10-19
G: 5-5

CUMBERLAND—Goodness gracious.

Greely’s good.

Especially when the Rangers are raining down 3s as they were Tuesday night in a surprisingly lopsided home win over rival Yarmouth in what was expected to be a down-to-the-wire boys’ basketball thriller.

Instead, Greely quickly ended all doubt, thanks to three straight 3s from junior Jordan Bagshaw in the early going, which set the tone.

After the Rangers grabbed a 20-7 lead after one period, junior Matt McDevitt got in on the fun, telling Bagshaw anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better by hitting three 3s of his own as Greely extended its advantage to 39-15 at halftime.

Little changed in the third quarter, as Bagshaw and McDevitt continued to hit from long range and the hosts showed they could score from in close as well, as junior Ryan Twitchell brought the house down with a slam dunk.

The Rangers then put the finishing touches on a not-as-close-as-the-final-score-indicated 72-57 victory, as they stayed undefeated on the young season.

Bagshaw led the way with 27 points, McDevitt added 24, Greely hit a mind-boggling 15 3s in all and improved to 4-0, dropping Yarmouth to 3-1 in the process.

“It’s no secret, when anyone shoots like that, it makes everything easier,” said Rangers coach Travis Seaver. “Tonight, we were able to shoot well.”

New classes, same excellence

With the statewide reclassification this winter, Greely is now in Class A South, while Yarmouth finds itself in Class B South.

Both teams downed all comers in the early going.

The Rangers opened with an emphatic 73-47 home win over defending Class B champion Cape Elizabeth, then beat host York (81-67) and visiting Brunswick (62-49).

The Clippers downed host Gray-New Gloucester (69-47) in their opener, then rallied to avenge last year’s playoff ouster with a 72-68 home victory over Lake Region before earning an impressive 58-44 win at Waynflete.

Entering play Tuesday night, since the start of the 2001-02 season, Greely held a 19-8 lead in the series, but after the Rangers took all three meetings in 2013-14, Yarmouth captured both last winter, 57-53 in Cumberland and 61-42 at home.

This time around, the Clippers were seeking to win at Greely in successive seasons for the first time this century, but it didn’t take long for it to become clear that Yarmouth was a mere role player in a shooting exhibition for the ages.

The Clippers actually struck first, as sophomore Nolan Hagerty made a 3-pointer, but with 6:11 remaining in the opening quarter, Bagshaw broke the ice with a 3.

And the fun was just beginning.

The next time down the floor, Bagshaw buried another 3 and for an encore, he drained an even longer 3-ball for a quick 9-3 lead.

“I just let it fly, just like I’m shooting at home,” Bagshaw said.

Bagshaw missed his next attempt, but Twitchell was there to tip it home and midway through the first period, Yarmouth was in dire enough straits for coach Adam Smith to call timeout.

It didn’t help as Greely senior Cal Soule tossed a highlight reel ally-oop to Twitchell, who finished with a layup and the run was 13-0 and the lead was 10.

With 3:16 remaining in the first, the Clippers snapped a 3 minute, 35 second drought when senior Musseit M’Bareck set up junior Aleksander Medenica for a layup, but that was a mere hiccup, as the Rangers answered with a pretty scoop shot from Bagshaw after a baseline drive, McDevitt hit his first 3 and sophomore Shane DeWolfe set up freshman Zach Brown for a layup. As time wound down in the frame, Yarmouth got a putback from senior Devin Shields-Auble, but the Clippers had been staggered and trailed, 20-7.

Yarmouth was hindered by foul trouble, as both M’Bareck and senior Bailey Darling picked up two quick ones.

Any Clippers’ comeback hopes were quickly dashed in the second period.

First, Soule set up Twitchell for a layup. Bagshaw then hit two foul shots and McDevitt blocked a shot at one end, then drained a 3 at the other to make it a 20-point game, 27-7.

After senior Caleb Normandeau added a jumper for Greely, Hagerty sank two free throws to end the 9-0 run and a 5:20 drought, but McDevitt answered with another 3 for a 32-9 advantage.

“I love how on our team anyone can have a good night,” McDevitt said. “I saw (Jordan) doing it and I saw a window open up and let it fly. Once the crowd gets into it, it gets into us and we keep shooting.”

After Hagerty made two free throws, Medenica inbounded the ball to Shields-Auble for a layup and the visitors had their first consecutive successful trips of the night.

Bagshaw answered with a pair of free throws and after Medenica scored on a leaner, Bagshaw hit yet another 3 and as time wound down, junior Ben Williams ran a backdoor cut, took a pass from DeWolfe and made a layup for a 39-15 lead.

In the first half, Bagshaw had 18 points, McDevitt nine and Twitchell six.

Greely refused to let Yarmouth back in the game in the second half.

While the Clippers did get a break as the opening throw-in went awry and came right to M’Bareck, who made a layup just three seconds in, their good fortune didn’t last.

Medenica added a free throw, but McDevitt stemmed the tide with, you guessed it, a 3, for a 42-18 lead.

M’Bareck scored on a putback, but stop the presses, McDevitt countered with a pullup 3 and the score was 45-20.

After Medenica scored on a putback, what happened next was no surprise, as the Rangers again got three points, but this time it came the old fashioned way, as Soule made a layup while being fouled and added the free throw for a 48-22 advantage.

Yarmouth got layups from Darling and Medenica and with 3:25 to play in the third, Hagerty knocked down a 3, but just when it appeared the visitors might make things interesting, Bagshaw hit a 3 and Twitchell stole the ball and raced in for a dunk to make it 53-29, bringing the fans to their feet in the process.

After Shields-Auble scored on a putback, Bagshaw made a 3 and McDevitt followed by making sure he hit an even longer one to push the lead to 59-31.

With under a minute to go, Clippers senior Conor O’Donnell, who had played as hard as anyone but had been frustrated by missing six free throws, finally got a shot to drop, a 3 from the corner, but on the play, he got hurt and missed the rest of the game.

In the waning seconds of the quarter, McDevitt hit a 3 and after Medenica converted a three-point play, Rangers sophomore Nick Gauvin scored on a leaner for a 64-37 lead heading for the final frame.

There, Yarmouth finished strong, but it was far too little, too late.

After Shields-Auble began the quarter with a jumper, Twitchell made a layup. After Medenica and Bagshaw traded 3s, Medenica made a pair of foul shots, M’Bareck sank a 3 and Hagerty scored on a tip-in to cut the deficit to 69-49 with 4:01 left.

McDevitt stemmed the tide with a 3-pointer, Greely’s final points of the night, and the Clippers closed with a Medenica layup, two free throws from Medenica, an M’Bareck layup and a layup from junior Gibson Harnett to account for the 72-57 final score.

“I’m proud of our team,” Bagshaw said. “I’m happy with how we played and how the season’s going. We have a great group of guys on defense. We start with our defense. That’s really improved from last year. Defense wins games.”

“We have guys we put on the floor who have the ability to play all over and fortunately, their range doesn’t start at the 3-point line and they have the ability to get to the rim,” Seaver said. “We have more than one guy who can do that. Defensively, our intensity was pretty good tonight.”

Bagshaw had seven 3s and wound up with a game-high 27 points. He also had seven rebounds, two assists, two blocked shots and two steals.

McDevitt had the other eight of Greely’s 15 3s, which accounted for all 24 of his points. McDevitt added 11 rebounds and a block.

Twitchell wound up with 10 points (as well as six rebounds, five steals and three assists), Soule had three (to go with three assists) and Brown, Gauvin, Normandeau (four assists) and Williams each added two.

The Rangers (who “only” hit 11 two-point field goals) made all five of their free throw attempts and wound up with 22 turnovers, but those will be a mere footnote.

Yarmouth was paced by 21 points from Medenica, who also had five rebounds and three steals. Hagerty had 12 points (as well as nine rebounds, four blocks and three steals), M’Bareck nine (to go with five assists, four steals and four rebounds), Shields-Auble eight (to go with five boards), O’Donnell three and Darling and Harnett (four steals, three assists) two apiece.

The Clippers took good care of the ball (committing just 13 turnovers) and held a 30-29 rebounding advantage, but they made just 10 of 19 foul shots.

“(Greely’s) very good here,” Smith said. “They had opportunities and they took advantage. That’s what a great team does. We could have stemmed that by knocking down a few shots of our own, but that didn’t happen. If we stayed within 12 or 15, we would have had an opportunity in the second half. We played better in the second half. The guy who played the hardest for us tonight, Conor, couldn’t get a shot to drop. If he knocked those down, maybe everybody gets lifted, but when they saw him go so hard without getting results, it hurt us all.”

Christmas come early

Yarmouth hopes to bounce back Thursday when it goes to Maranacook. The Clippers then close the 2015 portion of their schedule with home games versus Sacopee Valley Saturday and Poland Tuesday.

“As well as we’d played this year, we still have a long way to go,” Smith said. “We’ll have these moments. How we come back will tell us a lot. This will either be a motivating factor for us, or it will take us down for a week or two. We won’t hang our heads. We’ll see how tough we are. I think we’re tough and we’ll bounce back quickly. I’m anxious to get back to work.”

Greely will be tested plenty before the calendar flips. Friday, the Rangers are at Gorham and the following evening, they host rival Falmouth. Greely visits Morse Tuesday.

“It’s a very big week for us,” said Bagshaw. “We need to limit turnovers. Our decision making isn’t always great. If we can put that together, we’ll be alright.”

“There’s a long way to go, but if we shoot well, the sky’s the limit,” McDevitt said.

“We’re in a good position,” Seaver added. “We didn’t come into the season to be 4-0. We came in to play our best basketball later on. Gorham’s tough, especially at Gorham, and Falmouth is tough as well. We just have to get better every day. It’s a great group of kids. I’m excited about these guys.”

Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached atmhoffer@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @foresports.

Greely junior Jordan Bagshaw has a shot swatted away by Yarmouth sophomore Nolan Hagerty. Bagshaw had much more luck from the outside, burying seven 3-pointers en route to a game-high 27 points.

Greely junior Ryan Twitchell goes up for a layup.

Greely junior Ben Williams goes up for a layup as Yarmouth senior Conor O’Donnell defends at the end of the first half.

Yarmouth senior Musseit M’Bareck attempts a finger roll.

Yarmouth senior CJ Cawley goes up for a shot as Greely freshman Zach Brown defends.

Yarmouth senior Bailey Darling lines up a shot.

Greely junior Jordan Bagshaw rejects a shot by Yarmouth junior Aleksander Medenica.

Recent Greely-Yarmouth results

2014-15
Yarmouth 57 @ Greely 53
@ Yarmouth 61 Greely 42

2013-14
@ Greely 57 Yarmouth 49
Greely 65 @ Yarmouth 48
Western B semifinals
Greely 56 Yarmouth 38 

2012-13
@ Greely 58 Yarmouth 44
@ Yarmouth 60 Greely 53

2011-12
@ Yarmouth 53 Greely 52
@ Greely 58 Yarmouth 57

2010-11
Greely 61 @ Yarmouth 53
Yarmouth 53 @ Greely 51
Western B semifinals
Yarmouth 54 Greely 42

2009-10
@ Greely 57 Yarmouth 49
Greely 54 @ Yarmouth 38

2008-09
@ Greely 63 Yarmouth 44

2007-08
@ Yarmouth 49 Greely 46

2006-07
Greely 56 @ Yarmouth 52
@ Greely 72 Yarmouth 55
Western B quarterfinals
Greely 67 Yarmouth 53

2005-06
Greely 67 @ Yarmouth 33
@ Greely 65 Yarmouth 37

2004-05
@ Greely 66 Yarmouth 50
@ Yarmouth 61 Greely 59

2003-04
Greely 43 @ Yarmouth 37
@ Greely 50 Yarmouth 39

2002-03
@ Greely 43 Yarmouth 38

2001-02
Greely 69 @ Yarmouth 52

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