In one locker room there was laughter and loud music, yelling and high-fiving – all of the things expected from a team that had just beaten its rival in the biggest game of the season.
A few feet away, in the neighboring space, the sounds – particularly the words of the coach, the words that were supposed to comfort the players after a loss to their rival in the biggest game of the season – were not flowing so freely.
How was Cape Elizabeth boys basketball coach Jim Ray supposed to console his players when they knew they didn’t play as well as they could’ve in last Wednesday’s Western Class B semifinal game against Falmouth?
The effort was there, just like it had been there in the final game of the regular season when the Capers beat the Yachtsmen by six points. Some nights, though, effort just isn’t enough and Wednesday’s game showed that.
The No. 2 Capers scored just nine points in the first half and lost to No. 3 Falmouth, 60-45.
“Last time we played them when I started out in the locker room, I said, ‘It’s not about winning or losing. It’s about going out and playing a good game,'” said Ray. “I went in there (after the game) and I can’t fool them. We didn’t play a good game. They didn’t have any offensive rhythm in the first half.”
More specifically, it was the second quarter that did the Capers in. Things were close in the first as both teams took their time with the ball and waited for open shots to develop.
The score was 8-6 in favor of Falmouth when the second period began. Over the next seven minutes, though, the game slowly slipped away.
“They were slowing the ball down. They were taking the air out of the ball,” said Cape senior forward Liam O’Shea. “They were running about a minute, minute and a half off the clock every possession, getting good shots. And the shots that we got weren’t falling early, so they got off to a good start and we didn’t.”
By the time sophomore forward Shaine Burks scored Cape’s second and third points of the quarter on a fast break there was just a minute left on the clock. Falmouth’s Bryant Barr hit a three before the buzzer sounded, and the Yachtsmen were up, 21-9.
“We just didn’t play a first half of legitimate basketball,” said senior center Joe Geoghegan, who finished with 17 points. “Any time you score in the single digits it’s hard to walk away from it and wonder where you lost it. We just couldn’t put the ball in the basket in the first half.”
With the Western Maine final still upcoming at the time – Mountain Valley ended up beating the Yachtsmen, 47-40 – Falmouth coach Dave Halligan was unwilling to divulge the specifics of his defensive strategy.
“We just tried to mix things up,” he said. “We’ve played each other so many times we know what they’re going to do, they know what we’re going to do, so we tried to put a couple of wrinkles in here and there.”
O’Shea and Geoghegan combined for just one point in the first half.
“Barr was determined,” said Ray. “He was going to lock Liam up and not let him get off to a good start. Liam had a tough time getting looks.
“We kind of like it when they leave our shooters open, let us shoot it, and then leave space for Joe (Geoghegan) and let us throw it in. They weren’t going to do that.”
Looking back, Ray questioned his own in-game strategizing.
“How long should I have waited before I changed (personnel) and tried to get it up and down to change the pace of the game?” he said.
Still, though, the 12-point deficit wasn’t insurmountable if the Capers could improve the offense and continue playing solid defense. Barr, Falmouth’s star swingman who is headed to Div. 1 Davidson on a scholarship, had just five points in the first quarter.
The Capers were hopeful.
“That’s a pretty good offensive team, but we were thinking that we’ve got to chip away one basket at a time, get some stops on defense, try to get it inside to Joe,” said O’Shea. “We started to, but they got a couple of open shots and they took advantage of every opportunity we gave them.”
Geoghegan knocked down a pair of free throws a minute into the third to make it 21-13, but Falmouth responded with a trio of three-pointers – two by guard JJ Forcella (eight points), one by Barr – over the next two minutes. And then, with 4:39 to go, Brady Frost (seven points) completed an old-fashioned three by sinking an up-and-under and a free throw; that made it 33-15.
“I think last time we played them we tried to go to one person and force everything,” said Halligan. “Tonight we had to spread the ball around, get other guys involved. They took Bryant out and shut down his offense early in the game, but other guys stepped up.”
The Capers wouldn’t get any closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
“I’ve been with (the seniors) a long time,” said Ray. “My son is one of them, so I’ve been very close to seeing them come through together right from third grade. You could tell that they had some good chemistry in that group. That’s what’s most disappointing to me, not so much losing but how we lost.”
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