By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

FRYEBURG — For Coach Dan Thomas, it was easy to point to the top item on the Raider basketball team’s next practice list.

After watching his squad nearly squander an 11-point lead over the final 2:01 of Friday’s season opener at Wadsworth Arena against Greely, Coach Thomas planned to drill home pace and shot selection to his players.

One play typified the Raiders’ approach down the stretch. Off an inbound pass, rather than take some time off the clock and search out a high percentage shot or a foul call that would have sent FA to the free throw line, up went a corner 3-ball that was off the mark.

Greely pushed the ball down the court and scored, cutting into Fryeburg’s cushion. Fortunately, the Raiders bailed themselves out with hustle and tenacious defense in the closing seconds, along with a pair of clutch free throws by Bryce Richardson to secure a 54-49 victory.

“It wasn’t the shot we were looking for at that moment. We haven’t had practice time to work on late game situations. We’ve had five official practices, so we worked on what we could work on. Late game scenarios wasn’t something we got to, and you can guarantee it will be on the next one,” Coach Thomas said. “I thought we handled the pressure well, the problem was we beat the pressure and then took a bad shot. We have a lot of senior guys who I think just gave in to the moment tonight. We didn’t have this problem last year, we understood the situation. First game. Big crowd. Everyone wanted to hit the home run dagger. We need to be more disciplined than that. That’s on me. We’ll work on it.”

Junior guard Gunnar Saunders netted 15 points to lead a balanced Raider attach that had nine different players score.

“I am really proud of our effort tonight. Guys 1 through 9 really played huge minutes for us. We are going to get more guys out there this year because I think our depth is our biggest strength,” Fryeburg Coach Dan Thomas said. “That’s a really good Greely team. We’re going to see several really good teams this year so to get a win right off the bat is really good for us.”

Guard Camden Johnson found his scoring touch early, knocking down consecutive 3-pointers to give FA an 8-2 lead.

Playing in-your-face defense, Saunders tipped a ball away from a Greely player and raced the other way for a lay-up. FA defenders showed that type of grittiness all night, especially on the defensive boards, which was a question mark entering the season.

“We worked on rebounding in practice. You lose a 6-foot-9 Will Hallam and his brother, Bobby Hallam, who were our two leading rebounders last year, someone is going to need to step up. Our point guard Gunnar Saunders had 9 rebounds, which was huge at his position and our new 6-6 power forward Joao Orlando had 10 boards and 4 blocks. He is stepping into that rim protector role that we were missing with Will Hallam gone. Definite a concern of ours but tonight I liked what I saw.”

Coach Thomas really liked seeing Orlando, whose minutes were being limited coming off an injury, perfectly trail a Greely shooter to then elevate and block his shot. The ball went quickly the other way with Saunders scoring the layup.

“I told the guys every day at practice let your defense create your offense. I was really proud how our guys defended tonight, minus the last four minutes or so,” the coach said.

If one had just watched the game and hadn’t looked at the scoreboard, it felt as if the Raiders had a 12 to 14-point lead at the break. They dominated in the energy department, but led just 22-17 at the break mainly due to taking too many off-balance or highly-contested shots which missed. 

“We talked at halftime how we were passing up good looks from 3, which we take a lot of 3s at practice for this reason, I’d rather take the open shot than the contested shot. We settled in and started to take better looks in the second half. We’ll continue to work on what we do rather than give in at the moment and take tougher shots than what we want,” Coach Thomas said.

After a slow start, Greely shooters found the range and knocked down three 3-pointers in the third quarter to keep the game close. Orlando ignited the FA crowd with a dunk, and fans had lots to cheer about when Austin Warren drained back-to-back 3-pointers to give FA a 36-30 lead. Saunders point an exclamation point on a more productive scoring quarter with a nifty baseline drive and scored with 12.5 seconds left.

FA had found a nice rhythm, and it continued over the first 6 minutes of the final quarter. Orlando scored two buckets in the paint, Saunders drove through the Greely defense for a pair of layups, and Boone Douglass scored on a baseline drive.

Home 50, Visitors 39

2:01 left on the clock

With FA misfiring, Greely chipped away at the lead. Seamus Raftice buried a pair of 3-pointers.

Jackson Leding swished a baseline jumper.

Hayden MacArther converted two foul shots.

A 10-2 run had the Rangers in striking distance, 52-49, with 16.8 seconds left.

Fryeburg seemingly left the door open to overtime when guard Gunnar Saunders was trapped, knocked down and lost the ball out of bounds (no foul called). Greely ball. Rather than become unglued by the last play, the Raiders instead dug in defensively. Greely skipped the ball to a player in the left corner, but the pass zipped through the shooter’s hands, out of play.

FA iced the win when Richardson was fouled with 4.6 seconds left, and the senior guard converted both foul shots.

Coach Thomas liked the mental toughness his club showed with the game on the line.

“We preach next play mentality. You turn the ball over or air ball a shot, next play. It is too quick a game to worry about, especially in this situation when it is a 3-point game and seconds left. I had the guys on the floor who I knew would lock in on defense, and they did just that, forcing a big turnover,” he said. “Big kudos to Bryce Richardson, senior, knocking down two big free throws to finally close out the game. I was proud of his and many others’ efforts tonight. We escaped with a victory. It didn’t seem that way for a while, but that’s Greely for you. They are going to fight until the end. We’re going to have to be ready for a fight the next time we see them. All negatives aside, it’s great to get a win against a team like Greely.”

Game 1 is in the books, full of many positives and a few things that still need to be ironed out. 

“We just need more time to work on a few things. We have a couple of guys (senior captain Geri Daiu, knee injury) that are banged up or sick right now,” Coach Thomas added. “I played less guys tonight than I had planned. We have a lot of depth on this team. I liked what I was seeing defensively from the guys on the floor so I stuck with them. There’s going to be guys who are going to go in this year who didn’t get in tonight. They just need to continue to trust the process and get a few more varsity practices under their belts. We’re going to keep guys fresh, which will be our big advantage in the fourth quarter.”

Scoring: Lorenzo Catana Vallemani 2-2-6, Camden Johnson 2-0-6, Gunnar Saunders 7-1-15, Bryce Richardson 1-3-5, Joao Orlando 3-0-6, Austin Warren 2-0-6, Sean Davis 0-2-2, Jordan Dutton 1-2-4, Boone Douglass 1-2-4. FT 12-15.