Coming off a deflating home loss to Cheverus, Westbrook boys basketball coach Mark Karter wanted to see what his team was made of when it visited Portland last Friday night at the Expo.
The Blue Blazes responded by playing one of their best games of the year, led by Dominic Borelli’s season-high 27 points and 19 rebounds. They seized control with a big second quarter and didn’t let the Bulldogs get back in the game in the second half, winning 62-48 to improve to 12-2. Westbrook is second to Cheverus in this week’s release of the Heal Point standings. Portland dropped to 11-3 and is No. 6.
“This was a good character check for us,” Borelli said. “Coach told us he wanted to see what we had.”
Borelli, a 6’7″ junior center who missed the early part of the season with back spasms, had a breakout game against one of the SMAA’s top post players in Portland center Ed Bogdanovich, who stands a solid 6’6″. Bogdanovich scored eight of his team’s 11 first-quarter points, going back and forth with Borelli, who scored 11 in the opening quarter. Borelli’s 3-pointer just before the horn gave the Blazes a 16-11 advantage after one.
Bogdanovich sat most of the second quarter after being called for his second foul, then picked up a third with seconds to play in the first half when he went over Borelli’s back on a rebound. That forced him to sit much of the third quarter, as well. He had only three of his team-high 13 points after halftime.
“Dom’s still a junior, so it was interesting to see how he’d play a tough senior center,” Karter said. “I thought he played real well. He certainly did rise to the occasion tonight. He’s starting to get in shape and starting to take over games a little bit.”
Borelli went right at Bogdanovich, working hard for position down low, while also forcing the Portland defense to respect his jumper, as he knocked down a pair of 3s.
“We wanted to get Bogs in foul trouble because we knew he liked to leave his feet a lot,” Borelli said. “We thought that was key. My shots were falling. I got the looks I wanted to without having to force too much.”
In the second quarter, the Westbrook zone and Bogdanovich’s absence forced the Bulldogs to take shots from the perimeter. After making a 3 to start the quarter and pull within two points, Portland went cold from outside and the Blazes went on a 12-0 run. Andrew Beckwith’s pull-up jumper in transition gave Westbrook a 28-14 lead midway through.
Borelli scored nine in the second quarter and Christian Hamilton sank a pair of 3s. It was 37-23 in favor of the Blazes going into halftime. Borelli left quite an impression on Portland coach Joe Russo.
“He had 20 in the first half and it wasn’t because we weren’t trying to cover him,” Russo said. “It wasn’t because we left him wide open. He played a legitimate, top-player-in-the-league type of game tonight.”
Portland closed its deficit to seven with 2:50 remaining in the third quarter as James Ek made a 3 and was credited for two when Nich Jobin was called for goaltending on a fast-break layup. But Jobin, who finished with 14 points for Westbrook, made four straight free throws and Beckwith converted a three-point play off a nice entry pass from Jose Nouchanthavong to push the lead back to 14. It was 48-36 entering the fourth.
Tyler Kelly scored all six of his points in the fourth quarter for the Blazes and Borelli and Jobin made back-to-back three-point plays in the final three minutes to seal the win.
Koang Thok scored eight of his 12 points in the fourth quarter for Portland.
Russo was surprised and disappointed by his team’s performance.
“What happened tonight was opposite of what I expected,” Russo said. “It just shows that I thought we were better than we are. What we did tonight is who we are. I thought we’d beat Westbrook by 30 points tonight. I’m not saying that because they’re not a good team – Borelli is awesome – but I thought we were that good. It came down to rebounding. We got one shot and we were done. They shot at least two, three, sometimes four times per possession. It didn’t matter if they made their first shot. Their second shots killed us.”
Against Cheverus last Monday, Westbrook fell behind by 15 in an uninspired first quarter and never really challenged, losing 60-44. The energy was much improved at the start against Portland.
“We came out with a lot of intensity,” Karter said. “We made shots, which helped. We executed our offense very well. They’re a very good defensive team, so we had to do a good job of running our offense to get shots.”
Portland was Westbrook’s highest-ranked remaining regular season opponent.
“It’s nice knowing that we can win out, if we don’t get caught in a trap game,” Borelli said. “We can be in a good spot for the playoffs.”
Westbrook avoided its first potential trap game Tuesday night, topping Massabesic at home, 64-47.
The Blazes visit Gorham on Friday and Bonny Eagle next Wednesday before hosting Windham on Feb. 6 in the regular-season finale.
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