MARCUS DEVOE of Lake Region tries to block Yarmouth's Adam LaBrie's shot during Saturday's matinee. (Rivet Photo)
LAKER BOYS
Heal Rank: #4, 12-5
Position: The Lakers remain in the fourth spot, nine tourney points behind Cape Elizabeth (13-3), who lost Tuesday night to Falmouth.
The Lakers are eight points up on Lincoln Academy (11-6) following Tuesday’s 56-54 victory at Poland behind double-digit efforts from Jackson Lesure (12) and Marcus DeVoe (10).
The Lakers started quick against the Knights (8-9, #10) with an 18-8 run. The teams played even quarters in the second and third (11-10 LR, 15-15) before the Knights made a last ditch run in the fourth, outscoring the Lakers 21-12 to make it very interesting.
For the Lakers, Nate Smith netted 9 points, Nick Hall and Nick Wandishin each scored 8 points, Quinn Piland 6, Alex Langadas 2 and Tyler Walker 2.
Alan Young was the game’s high scorer with 21 points for Poland. Derek Michaud and Trevor Saunders each had 10 points, while Jared Martel had 8.
Games left: Home tonight, 7 p.m., against York (#9, 9-7). If the Lakers stay at #4, they would play the #5 seed — which is currently Lincoln Academy — in the quarterfinals at the Portland Expo.

By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

YARMOUTH — As fans settled into the stands for Saturday’s matinee, several Yarmouth supporters expected “a close game.”

What they got was a Clipper shootout.

Temps were near sub-zero as the wind whipped up newly fallen snow outside, but the top-ranked Class B West leading Clippers were red-hot shooting the basketball.

Yarmouth made its first five shots, sank seven 3-pointers over the first eight minutes, and zipped to a 28-point halftime lead.

So much for a close one.

Five Clippers netted 3-point shots en route to 11 on the afternoon as Yarmouth (13-3) spanked Lake Region 87-55.

Junior guard Cody Cook was high scorer with 17 points, while senior captains Jordan Brown netted four 3-pointers for a 16-point game while guard Adam LaBrie connected for two treys and 16 points.

“They were more aggressive shooting the three than in the two games I watched them play,” Lake Region Coach J.P. Yorkey said. “We knew they could all shoot, the same is true about our starters, too, as they’ve all had games with multiple three-point field goals made. Yarmouth did make a lot of threes in their loss to Waynflete (I think that was the game), but other than that, probably above average.”

Yarmouth raced out to a 14-5 lead by making five straight shots, four of which come from behind the arc. One surprise may have been the range of senior forward Cote Sawyer, who knocked down three straight 3-pointers from the corners.

“I would say that #25 (Sawyer) elevates higher than we thought on his jumpshot. The same is true for #23 (Brown). Most kids shoot set shots when they shoot threes. They were shooting jumpshot threes, which makes the release point quite a bit higher. When I watched the video (after the game), pretty much all of them were contested — we didn’t quite get there on #25,” Coach Yorkey said.

Despite the 3-point avalanche, the Lakers stayed close as Jack Lesure (15 points, 5 rebounds) dropped a trey and Nate Smith beat the Clippers along the baseline for a one-handed flip shot.

Down 14-10, the Lakers had trouble against a quick, active Yarmouth defense, turning the ball over seven times in the quarter. LR went nearly three minutes scoreless before Quinn Piland ended the drought with a free throw.

When the buzzer sounded, Yarmouth was up 27-11. The Clips shot 8-of-14 from the floor, seven of those made shots 3-pointers while the Lakers struggled, going 3-for-10 from the floor.

The deficit continued to steadily climb in the second quarter as the Lakers managed just a 3-pointer from Nick Hall and an offensive putback by Nick Wandishin to start the frame. Over the final 5:34, the Lakers tallied four points — all from the foul line. Although both Hall and Wandishin were able to get second shot opportunities because of their hard work on the offensive glass, the Lakers shot 2-of-12 from the floor.

“Nick Wandishin pulled a rebound and was going back up and got knocked down by two guys. Hard to get a put back when two guys are slamming into you,” said Coach Yorkey, who pulled up a couple of still frames from game footage that illustrated his point. “We started well…we weathered their first barrage of threes and made a run over our own to close the gap but they just continued to make shots. I thought that they recovered well on defense too. They turned some easy shots into difficult ones.”

Yarmouth continued to sizzle as LaBrie netted a pair of 3-pointers and Cook was effective taking the ball strong to the rim, scoring 8 points during the 23-9 run.

For the quarter, the Clippers were 9-of-14 from the field — for the half, they were 17-of-28, 61%.

The Lakers line — 5-of-22, 23% from the field with 14 turnovers.

In the second half, the teams played a more even game with the Clippers holding a slight advantage — 14-13 and 23-22.

Lesure played well despite foul trouble, scoring eight straight for the Lakers in the third quarter. However, the Lakers were unable to put a dent into the deficit as the Clippers showed good balance with four different players scoring.

Down 64-33 entering the fourth, the Lakers discovered that Yarmouth is a deep club as junior C.J. Cawley dropped two 3-pointers and freshman Nolan Hagerty was tough in the paint.

After a quiet three quarters, LR sharpshooter Nate Smith (14 points, 4 rebounds) came alive from behind the arc, knocking down three 3-pointers.

Yet, Yarmouth always came right back the other way and scored, pushing the final margin to a 32-point victory.

Not quite what the Lakers had in mind when they hope to knock off #1 and improve their Heal Ratings standing after three-straight wins.

Stat Sheet

LR scoring: Nick Hall 6, Alex Langadas 5, Quinn Piland 4, Tyler Walker 3, Nick Wadinshin 2, Marcus DeVoe 2, Cole Eugley, Brandon Palmer 2.

Turnovers: LR 23, YAR 15

FT: LR 13-22, YAR 8-11

FG: LR 17-48 (35%), YAR 33-58 (57%)

Rebounds: LR 26, YAR 27

LR top rebounders: Piland 6, Hall 5, Lesure 5, Smith 4.