Adam LaBrie made four 3-pointers in the third quarter Saturday as top-ranked Yarmouth, in a close game for a half, pulled away to a 79-48 victory against ninth-seeded Gray-New Gloucester in a Western Class B boys’ basketball quarterfinal at the Portland Expo.
Yarmouth (16-3) will play fourth-seeded Lake Region (14-5) in a semifinal at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Cross Insurance Arena.
The Clippers made only five 3-pointers in the first half, then went on to a record shooting display.
LaBrie hit his first from the side, then repeated it the next time down the court. Jordan Brown followed from beyond the arc and it was 41-29.
LaBrie hit his third of the quarter, then Brown hit his second to make it a 15-0 run. Brown and Cook then scored 2-pointers to make it 51-29.
Kyle Keenan of Gray-New Gloucester made 1 of 2 from the line, but LaBrie made another 3 near the end of the quarter and added a 2-pointer to give the Clippers a 63-37 lead going into the fourth quarter.
In all, the Clippers outscored the Patriots 31-8 in the period, breaking away from a mere 32-29 halftime lead.
“My teammates were giving me the ball and I just felt I had to do something after the first half we had,” said LaBrie. “Making the 3s fired us up. The rim looked as big as an ocean.”
Coach Adam Smith said he didn’t give an inspirational speech at halftime.
“We just needed to play,” he said. “I thought we were pressing in the first half. We just needed to settle down. Once we started running we got into our offensive flow. Adam put the team on his shoulders. I thought a couple of them were from just barely over halfcourt. He had an incredible third quarter.”
Yarmouth set a single-game Western Class B tournament record for 3-pointers with 14, breaking the mark held by Mountain Valley with 13 in 1994. It was also a single-game record for all classes.
LaBrie finished with six 3-pointers, tying a Western Class B record for 3s made in a game. LaBrie had a game-high 27 points, with 22 coming in the second half.
Brown added 19 for Yarmouth and Musseit M’Bareck had 12.
Tyler St. Pierre had nine of his 13 points for Gray-New Gloucester in the first half. Andreas Kariotis had seven points while Zachery Haskell was 5 of 7 from the line.
James Magno carried the load for the Patriots with 10 points in the second half to finish with a team-high 14.
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