By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

Coach Ryan Martin knows his team will experience growing pains this year with eight sophomore and freshmen on the varsity roster.

But, he likes the promise and tenacity these rookies possess.

The Lakers battled a good shooting, aggressive Maranacook team throughout Tuesday night’s game at Nutting Gym. In the end, too many turnovers were too tough to overcome in a 68-62 loss.

“Maranacook does a great job in pressuring us, making us uncomfortable, switching up their defenses. For us, we need to stay under control, communicate what we are running on offense. Turning the ball over, they scored a lot on transition. It all started with us not taking care of the ball,” Coach Martin said. “We’re a young team. This is all part of it.  You can’t expect them to come in, not playing a lot of varsity basketball, and understanding how to read a varsity trap. It is all part of the growing process. The guys are coachable, and that’s the first step of us being a better team.”

Sophomores Brock Gibbons and Ian Brogan got the Lakers off to a fast start with Gibbons canning a 3-pointer and Brogan sweeping through the Black Bear defense for a reverse layup, a foul and a made free throw for a 6-2 lead.

The Bears, however, closed out the quarter with a 12-5 run, showing soft shooting touches on drives and pull-ups in the lane.

LR senior Jacob Chadbourne closed the gap to 21-17 when his quick shooting trigger launched a 3-ball swish as the buzzer sounded.

The teams played a pretty even second frame with Chadbourne and Jacoby Barsley knocking down treys while 6-foot-4 sophomore center Jackson Libby gave the Black Bears fits in the lane because of his high motor and determination to score. His baseline jumper and a pair of Brogan foul shots tied the game. But, the Bears closed out the quarter with a baseline drive bucket by center Nick Wilson and a corner-3 by Wyatt Folsom.

Maranacook found their next gear offensively in the third, running the court well and either converting in the lane or zipping the ball to a shooter behind the arc for clean look hoops.

Meanwhile, the LR offense sputtered due to turnovers. Libby kept the Lakers within striking distance, scoring 8 of the team’s 12 points.

“The best thing about Jackson (game high 23 points) is that he pursues the basketball. If he misses, he knows where the ball is going, and he goes after it. He works so hard,” Coach Martin said. “He is a bull underneath. He’s strong, physical. He loves basketball. He has a lot of potential. He has a good sense where the ball is going, and he out works other teams. He wants the ball so bad, and he finds a way with his strength, size and athleticism. He is not use to double and triple teams, but will get a lot of practice playing against it this year. I think he’ll get better being under control and passing out of the double teams to make our team better, and make him more effective.”

Down 53-42 entering the fourth, the Lakers dogged the Bears with an aggressive press that changed the game’s flow and got the home team back into the contest.

Guard Evan Duprey made a nice steal, and Bardsley converted a missed layup for 2 points. Gibbons drained a straightaway 3-pointer and Chadbourne converted a baseline jumper to make it 59-54 with 2:52 left.

“These guys keep battling. Down 12 with three minutes in the game, they kept working, forced turnovers just by working hard, and did a great job competing until the end,” Coach Martin said. “I heard the guys talking in the locker room that they want to play every possession like it is a tie game.”

Maranacook, however, didn’t panic. Keagan McClure coolly drove the lane and sank a soft shot. 

The play that seemingly short-circuited the comeback was a missed rebound after the Bears made one of two foul shots. Jacob McLaughlin made the catch, shot quickly and scored, to push the lead to 64-56 with 1:04 left. 

The Bears made 4-of-6 foul shots to ice the victory.

One major difference was the Black Bears experienced depth pieces, while the Laker subs were rookies trying to get a feel for varsity play.

“They need to learn sometime. They’re going to learn quick against a team like Maranacook, they harass you and make you uncomfortable. It was great for kids to get minutes in that game. We turned the ball over a lot, but when we play them again, we’ll be better,” Coach Martin said. “The two keys coming out of this game are being better fundamentally boxing out and rebounding, and giving up too many second chance points against a team we could have out rebounded. Obviously, the turnovers. We need to continue to work being strong with the basketball. A lot of times too, people see a turnover by a guy with the ball, but the other guys are leaving him out to dry sometimes too. We need to do a better job helping the guy with the ball, sprinting to the right spots.”

Box Score: Aiden Roberts 1-0-2, Jacoby Bardsley 2-0-5, Evan Duprey 2-1-5, Ian Brogan 1-5-6, Jackson Libby 11-1-23, Brock Gibbons 2-0-6, Jacob Chadbourne 6-0-14. FT 7-of-10.