Nate Smith kicked off the Lakers’ attack with an early pair of threes against visiting Freeport on Thursday night, Jan. 7, and turned in his team’s best tally on the night, 18. Lake Region trumped the Falcons handily in the end, 70-47.
“We had a great win the other night against Falmouth,” said Lakers head coach John Mayo. “So we were on a high from that. We were go-go-go, and sometimes we started a little faster than we should have. But we played the good defense. We had to; [Freeport’s] physical and strong.”
Lake Region vaulted off the win to 6-2 in 2015-16. Freeport, meanwhile, slipped to 2-7.
“Doing some scouting, watching some film, I knew one of their better players just came back,” Mayo said, referring to Freeporter Jack Davenport. “[His absence] hurt them, so I think their record is a little deceiving at this point.”
Smith opened the scoring, draining his first of three threes on the night just seconds into the action. Falcons Ethan Sclar and Nate Pelletier then combined a pair of twos to seize a brief lead, 4-3. After that, however, the game got away from Freeport – rather, the Lakers took it from them.
Mayo applauded Smith’s spark to start the game. “That’s part of his job. He strokes it pretty well; he played well tonight.”
To their credit, Freeport, a program working its way up from several years of struggles, fought hard till the end and looked good through stretches; Lake Region simply had them outmatched this time around.
A Marcus DeVoe two, another Smith three, a Nick Wandishin two and an Alex Langadas two all added up to a 12-5 lead for the Lakers after one quarter. They built from there. In the early second, Tyler Walker turned a deuce of consecutive steals into feeds underneath to Jack Lesure for 18-5. The team went up 22-6 before the Falcons managed to string together two consecutive scoring plays again. By the break, the Lakers had doubled Freeport’s output, 34-17.
The Falcons did an admirable job, early on, of covering Lesure, who often leads Lake Region’s scoring. But that freed up the surplus of other Lakers talent, and Lesure can dish as well as he can drain.
“It’s all team stuff,” said Mayo, “so if they’re going to focus on Jack, then Nate, Marcus, Brandon, Wando, whoever’s in there – subs coming in off the bench – they’re going to step into the spot. And Jack’s willing to share the ball. He’ll go get the offensive rebound, or a steal in the open court.”
Midway through the third, Davenport, Caleb Rice and TJ Morrill pieced together another brief run, bringing Freeport back within 13 at 47-34. The Falcons tracked the Lakers into the fourth, but only inched closer when Pelletier turned a sloppy Lake Region foul on his three-pointer into four points total. 56-45.
The Lakers closed on a beautiful 14-2 run, ultimately plucking the Falcons 70-47.
Lesure knocked down 17 for the Lakers, despite that scoreless first quarter, and the rest of the team’s well-balanced offense contributed in critical measures as well. DeVoe finished with 12, Brandon Palmer eight, Wandishin six, Ryan Hodgdon four, Langadas three and Tyler Walker two.
Davenport also earned 17, despite also posting a scoreless opening quarter. Pelletier hashed 11 for the Falcons, TJ Morrill six, Sclar and Brady LaFrance four apiece, Caleb Rice three and Eli Fox two.
The Falcons, ninth in B South at the moment, fell 81-54 at Yarmouth on Saturday. They traveled to OOB on Tuesday and welcome Fryeburg on Friday.
Freeport’s Jack Davenport drives along the baseline; Laker Marcus Devoe (14) tracks him closely. Another Laker, Nick Wandishin (24), backs Devoe up.
Freeport’s Ethan Sclar takes to the air, surrounded by Lakers defenders.
Freeporter Brady LaFrance and Laker Jack Lesure clash midair beneath the net.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
