The Riots struggled through a lukewarm first quarter against visiting Massabesic Saturday afternoon, but found their court-legs in the second, when they began to pull away from the Mustangs. Four South Portlanders broke double digits – including Jaren Muller with 26 – in the 88-68 victory, a satisfying outcome for head coach Phil Conley.

“We weren’t ready to play in the first period,” Conley said, “and we dug ourselves a little bit of a hole. But the kids, after that, settled down and played our type of basketball.

“We scored 88 points, which is pretty good for a high school basketball game, and a lot of kids got to play. It’s always nice as a coach to be able to play everyone.”

“Once one player gets going, our whole team feeds off that,” Muller said. “We’re that kind of team. We’re all real good friends, so we tell each other straight-up to smarten up and start playing. Kids are reacting well to it, and starting to play better, and we started to pick up our defense and got some fast-break layups, which helped get us going.”

The result boosts South Portland to 7-2 on the year; the Riots, second in A West at the moment, dropped a narrow game to No. 1 Portland and suffered a slightly more substantial defeat at No. 4 Bonny Eagle. Otherwise, they’ve handled all takers by comfortable margins.

Massabesic falls to 1-7 this season. The No. 15 Mustangs’ struggles started early; the lone bright spot on their schedule so far has been a decisive win over 14^th-ranked Biddeford in the teams’ second meeting.

In the first eight minutes of Saturday’s matchup, though, one wouldn’t have guessed that South Portland and Massabesic had built such disparate records. The Mustangs charged to an early lead, in fact, going up 9-4 and then 13-8 on strong contributions by Josh Daigle and Matt Prokey.

Muller, along with Matt Pelletier, kept the Riots in the early action, but it wasn’t until their teammates also found a groove that South Portland pulled even and eventually ahead.

“It’s a Saturday game, those are always tough,” Muller said. “We started out real flat, so I figured I had to come off the bench, being a senior who’s been on varsity and played with a good team and a not-so-good team, and supply a little spark and try to get something going.”

Midway through the quarter, Sam DePaolo turned a nice steal into an assist on a Muller two, then added one from the line; Ruay Bol drained a two to bring the Riots within one and, finally, Pelletier bucketed another to inch them ahead, 17-16.

A sizeable chunk of South Portland’s takings came on pretty turnovers like DePaolo’s. “We got like 20, 30 points off steals,” and that’s a big part of our offense at this point, to generate turnovers with our trap and full-court defense.”

South Portland built from there, and by the end of the first, stood on top 24-16. Interestingly, though the Riots had awoken, and looked sharper in the next eight minutes, Massabesic held tight. Both teams hashed 19 more before the half, for a 43-35 score at the break.

In the third, South Portland poured on the points, outpacing the Mustangs 19-9 to break the board wide open. The Riots starters rested for much of the final quarter; their younger brethren closed the W out, 88-68.

It’s worth noting that Massabesic gave up a huge number of points on free-throws, several of which came on technical fouls. Three Mustangs’ failure to check in between quarters gave South Portland six shots from the line; Matt Pelletier took them all and sank five.

Conley noticed: “Even though we play aggressive, we hopefully play smart on defense. I think that was the difference tonight. They were playing hard, but probably a little bit too aggressive, and we got to the foul line. We made a lot of foul shots, which helped us.”

In addition to Muller’s 26, Pelletier pulled down 12 – including 11 frees. Jordin Jackson had 19 and Kam Haper 12. Dan Amabile led Massabesic with an impressive 23, while Prokey earned 14. Daigle finished with nine and Nate Binette 8.

South Portland travels to neighboring Scarborough on Tuesday the 6th, then has six days off before hosting Biddeford on the 13th. The Mustangs visit Noble on the 6th, and welcome Deering on the 9th.

Conley characterized the Riots’ “type of basketball”: “We normally play very hard from the get-go. We look to get the ball inside, take advantage of our bigs. Then we look for our guards; our guards have been doing a great job of knocking down shots.”

Conley is happy with where is team is, both as players and as people. “We’re on the right path, and we haven’t peaked yet,” he said. “We can still improve in areas, but I love this team. I love how close they are, and I love how hard they work in practice. Not just the starters, the whole entire team.”

Jordin Jackson finished with 19 in the Riots’ win over visiting Massabesic Saturday afternoon.Jaren Muller launches an inside jumper; Muller added a game-high 26.Ruay Bol lays up a shot for the Riots.Riots and Mustangs mix it up after Kam Harper releases a foul shot on Saturday afternoon.South Portland’s Silas Zechman collides on his way to the basket with Mustang Adam DeAngelis.

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