For an opponent to beat the South Portland High boys basketball team, there are a couple things it should avoid.
The first is putting junior guard Keegan Hyland on the foul line. On Friday night, Hyland made 19 of 20 attempts from the charity stripe – including all 11 he took in the fourth quarter – to help the Red Riots overcome a 13-point third-quarter deficit and defeat arch foe Portland 56-51 in the regular-season finale for both teams at the Portland Expo.
The second is getting the aforementioned Hyland angry. It was with just under two minutes left in the third quarter, with the Bulldogs leading 35-24, that Hyland went up for a layup on a fast break. He was fouled hard by Portland’s Joe Zukowski. While no intentional foul was called, Hyland said he thought it was a dirty play and had to be held back by his teammates after he was helped back to his feet.
“It got me wound up and got me going,” Hyland said. “I decided we were going to win this game. I like it when people try to get me upset. I try to take advantage of it and make them pay for it.”
He sank his free throws and went on to score 19 of his game-high 39 points over the final 10 minutes when the Riots outscored the Bulldogs 32-16. South Portland snapped a two-game losing streak and improved to 14-4, securing the No. 3 spot entering the Western Maine Class A tournament.
Portland dropped to 12-6 and ended up in the No. 6 spot. The Bulldogs hosted No. 11 Bonny Eagle on Tuesday night in a prelim after the Current’s deadline. South Portland plays the winner of that game on Saturday in the quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m. at the Expo.
Oh, and Hyland also scored his 1,000th career point, becoming only the second player in South Portland boys basketball history to do so. He entered the game needing 13 points to reach the milestone. He scored nine in the first quarter to stake the Riots to an 11-8 lead after one.
With 5:39 to go in the second, he broke a 14-14 tie with a pull-up jumper over Portland’s Walter Stover to give him 14 points for the game and 1,001 for his career. After a short stoppage in play to recognize Hyland’s accomplishment, South Portland extended its lead to six at 22-16 before Portland embarked on a 19-0 run to close the half and start the third.
The Bulldogs led 26-22 at halftime and pushed the lead to 35-22 with five minutes to go in the third on a putback by 6’6″ center Ed Bogdanovich, who, along with Stover, scored a team-high 16 points.
“I took some of the other guys aside and said, ‘Let’s go right now. Let’s focus. Let’s pick it up defensively and play aggressively.’ That’s what we did,” Hyland said. “We forced some turnovers. We made some shots. We hit our free throws. If you hit your free throws, you’re going to be in every game.”
Two free throws by Hyland with 4:21 to go in the third quarter gave the Riots their first points of the second half and snapped the Portland run. A three-point play by Connor Hasson cut Portland’s lead to four at 35-31 with a minute left in the third. It was 36-31 entering the fourth.
South Portland’s Spencer Bowring made two free throws to start the fourth. After a Portland turnover and Hasson’s layup, Portland’s lead was cut to one. Hyland knocked down a 12-foot jumper on which he was fouled, hit the free throw, and the Riots regained the lead at 38-36 with 6:36 remaining.
“We had a (13)-point lead,” said Portland coach Joe Russo. “You’ve got two choices there: You can blow them out of the gym or get complacent, and we got complacent.”
Portland’s final advantage came after Stover’s hoop made it at 44-42 with less than six minutes left. Hyland’s two free throws with 5:11 remaining tied it. Hyland picked up his fourth foul 25 seconds later, but remained in the game. He made two more free throws with 4:37 to go, making it 46-44 in favor of the Riots. Seventeen of South Portland’s 25 fourth-quarter points came at the line.
“You can’t win a free throw contest against Hyland,” Russo said. “He’s too good of a shooter.”
Portland was 10 of 17 on foul shots in the game.
Hasson scored six of his nine points in the fourth quarter. Ryan Curit and Spencer Bowring each made both their free throws in the final quarter to help the Riots pull out the win.
“Keegan was great tonight, like he is every night for us, but we had some other big contributors,” said South Portland coach Phil Conley. “Jon DiBiase took three charges in the game. I thought Hasson and Curit played well on the glass. Spencer Bowring did his thing. That was a team effort. It was nice to see after a tough loss at Deering. It’s nice to go into the playoffs on a winning note. Now we’ll take this week to get ready for whoever we play.”
“It’s good to play well on this floor, because we’re going to have to come back here next week,” Hyland said. “It’s going to be tough. We’re going to have to play great, but if we can play with them, we can play with anybody.”
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