Biddeford’s Carter Edgerton goes up for a shot against Kennebunk on Tuesday night. MAUREEN GRANDMAISON PHOTOGRAPHY
Unfortunately for the Rams, it would be the Tigers who closed the game strong as Biddeford rallied for a 50-47 win and completed the regular-season sweep.
“We can play with anybody … we’ve just got to put together four complete quarters,” said Kennebunk coach Barrett Belanger, whose team lost to Biddeford by a 56-31 score in their season opener.
Trailing 33-28 heading into the fourth quarter, Kyle Norton took over for the Tigers. The senior scored 12 of his team-high 18 points in the frame — including a sequence where he made two foul shots, Carter Edgerton stole a pass and dished it to Norton who nailed a 3-pointer to turn a 42-41 deficit into a 46-42 lead for Biddeford with just over a minute left.
“That was just momentum. We got the energy back and kind of carried it on from there,” said Norton.
“Kyle went off in the fourth quarter. He was key for us … he played big,” added Biddeford coach Justin Tardif.
Kennebunk standout Cam Lovejoy, who finished with a game-high 27 points, would keep the Rams in it as he had 10 in the fourth and made a 3-pointer with 9 seconds left to cut the Biddeford lead to 49-47 and give Kennebunk a chance.
After Norton made 1-of-2 from the line to push the lead to 50-47, the Rams would get one final shot but it would just miss and the Tigers celebrated their 11th win of the season.
Tardif was thrilled to see his team fight back every time they got down, which included a 9-point deficit in the third period.
“I was really proud of our mental toughness. We knew it was going to be tough coming in here on the road,” said Tardif. “We got down in the first and fought our way back to two points. Got down nine in the third and fought our way back. Then we got down six in the fourth.”
Norton knew the Rams were going to come ready to play after the Tigers’ blowout win on opening night.
“They knew they lost by 20-something last time, and they just came out and pounded us the first quarter. We just needed to calm down, get our defense set and stop the threes,” said Norton.
Belanger was impressed with Norton.
“He’s an immediate impact player. He was all-conference last year for a reason,” said Belanger of Norton, who missed the start of the season with an injury. “He appears to have worked himself into a good grove. He was not (the player) that we wanted to get shots. He was someone we talked about, so the fact that he was able to get open and get shots, he was working hard.”
Kennebunk jumped out to a 15-9 lead after the opening quarter and held a slim 19-17 advantage heading into the break.
Tardif knew the Rams were a much different team than the one they played at the beginning of the year.
“They won 10 games in a row. They’ve got some guys that can definitely score it as you can see,” said Tardif, who was really impressed with Lovejoy. “Lovejoy really played well offensively. Usually we do a really good job of taking away the top guy of a team, but Lovejoy played extremely well. He made a lot of tough shots, hit some threes and credit to him.”
Belanger had plenty of praise for the Tigers.
“Obviously we were both in foul trouble. We played a little tight and (Biddeford) did a great job, they played with a lot of confidence in the end,” said Belanger. “They’re a well-coached team and they made foul shots. They were very composed there in the fourth quarter.”
Tardif is hoping an emotional and physical game like Tuesday night’s will help his team when the postseason rolls around.
“A rivalry game is going to be like that and it’s a great experience come playoff time,” said Tardif. “The kids are going to need to handle that type of physical play, and they’re going to need to handle the ability of sometimes you get the call and sometimes you don’t get the call and it’s how you respond.”
New record
Lovejoy made some history early on as the junior hit two quick 3-pointers and the second one pushed him past former standout Zach MacKinnon for the all-time record for career threes in the Kennebunk boys basketball program.
Belanger praised his standout point guard for not only hitting some big 3-pointers, but keeping the Rams in Tuesday night’s contest.
“He’s a fantastic shooter. He got good looks and he was able to knock them down,” said Belanger. “He, offensively, kept us going throughout the entire game. Not only trusting his teammates to get him shots, but creating for himself, too.”
Lovejoy, who is only a junior, made six long-distance shots in the game and now has 106 career 3-pointers.
Familiar foes
The two head coaches are certainly not strangers as they were teammates at Biddeford back in the early 2000s.
“It stinks to lose … but it’s fun,” said Belanger of coaching against Tardif. “We feel like we know each other’s teams pretty well, not only because we scout each other but we’re familiar with the kids. It’s always fun playing against them and it’s kind of turning into a little bit of a rivalry for us.”
Tardif echoed that sentiment.
“It’s kind of an interesting feeling. I really enjoy talking to him before the games, and we share a lot of (scouting) and stuff like that, but when it comes down to when we actually play I hate to see him lose and I hate to see me lose,” said Tardif. “I said to him before the game, ‘one of us is going to sleep well tonight and the other one is not going to sleep well tonight.’”
Notes
Biddeford would get nine points from Edgerton and six from Jerome Criado, Jackson Oloya and Cody Saucier in the win … The Tigers went 15-of-21 from the foul line while the Rams got to the charity stripe just seven times and made four … Max Murray added 10 points for Kennebunk, which also got five from both Zack Sullivan and Kyle Pasieniuk … Kennebunk (10-5) will visit Westbrook on Friday, while Biddeford (11-3) travels to Brunswick on Thursday.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.
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