OLD ORCHARD BEACH – Sophomore Joey Gildard scored a career-high 22 points to lead No. 6 Old Orchard Beach to a 58-41 win over No. 11 St. Dominic in a Western Class C boys’ basketball preliminary game Wednesday night.
The Seagulls (11-7) will play No. 3 Boothbay Region in the quarterfinals at 2:30 p.m. on Monday at the Augusta Civic Center.
Trailing 25-21 at halftime, the Seagulls outscored the Saints (8-11) 14-4 in the third quarter. Gildard had 12 in the quarter as Old Orchard Beach’s quickness led to steals and baskets.
“The kids were very motivated in the second half,” said OOB Coach John Regan. “We got after them with our full-court pressure. We capitalized on St. Dom’s mistakes. We feed off our defense.”
Gildard opened the second half with a basket. He followed that with a 3-pointer from the side to give the Seagulls the lead. Meanwhile, the Saints were having trouble with the press. They committed back-to-back turnovers at the start of the third quarter that led to OOB points.
Gildard, a quick guard, scored inside to make it 28-25, prompting a St. Dom’s timeout.
“Joey did a great job penetrating their defense,” said Regan.
The Saints regrouped momentarily as Andrew Gosselin and Joe Bryant scored for a 29-28 lead, but the Seagulls scored the last eight in the quarter.
In the first half of the fourth quarter, the Saints had only had six points as OOB pulled away.
“Coach got us motivated at halftime and we just did what he told us,” said Gildard.
He said the points came easily in the second half.
“I just started driving to the basket and they went in. So I started to drive more,” he said. It’s nice to be going to Augusta.”
OOB built its lead to 20 on a basket by Quincy Grace midway in the fourth quarter. Point guard Andrew Fleury got into the act in the fourth, scoring all of his 11 points.
The Seagulls outscored the Saints 23-12 in the fourth quarter.
“We handled their pressure well in the first half,” said St. Dom’s Coach Ryan Deschenes. “We didn’t handle their 1-2-1-1 press well in the second half. They also seemed to make everything in the second half. We couldn’t get our offense going in the second half.”
The Saints were effective getting the ball inside to 6-foot-7 center Tom Applegate, who scored nine in the first half. He ended with 11.
The Saints also got contributions from David Dean, who added six in the third quarter. St. Dom’s hit three 3-pointers in the first half.
St. Dom’s jumped to a 10-4 lead. Applegate scored the game’s first basket on a power move. After Grace scored for OOB, Andrew Gosselin hit a 3-pointer. Gildard scored the first of his eight 2-pointers, but Bryant hit a 3-pointer for the Saints and Applegate made two from the line.
OOB rallied to tie it 12-12 after one. The second quarter stayed close, but the game changed in the second half as the Seagulls stepped up their defense and Gildard got hot.
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