FALMOUTH – Falmouth High’s perennially strong boys’ basketball team entered Friday night’s Class A South season opener as a bit of an unknown quantity to the casual hoop fan. The Navigators didn’t have a starter back from its playoff team that lost to Brewer in the state final.
Well, the two-time defending Class A South champions showed they are still the team to beat in their league, rolling to an impressive 75-54 win against a Gray-New Gloucester squad that returns three senior starters from a 16-win team.
If anything, Falmouth looks improved. Senior 6-foot-8 center Chris Simonds is not only back (he broke his ankle prior to the playoff) but is more agile, blocking eight Gray-New Gloucester shots, rebounding and scoring 14 points. He has help inside from slashing 6-3 forward Henry Stowell (17 points). And the guards want to push the ball and bury shots from behind the arc, as Billy Burks (21 points with 5 3-pointers) and Davis Mann (11 with three 3s) showed.
“This team is one of the most skillful teams I’ve ever played with,” Simonds said. “We have great team chemistry. We love playing with each other. It’s mostly unknown because nobody has played varsity minutes yet but I think we’re going to be very surprising to teams. I think we have a special team this year.”
In addition to his shooting, Burks played man-up defense on Nate Hebert, last season’s leading scorer in the Western Maine Conference (20.6 per game). Hebert did finish with 20 points but it was a hard 20, especially after the first quarter when he had 10 points and Falmouth’s lead was a modest 22-17.
“(Hebert) had to work for every point he got. He’s one of the best players in the state. Billy’s job was defensively but he contributed offensively, too,” said Falmouth Coach David Halligan
John Patenaude, a transfer from Poland Regional, scored 13 points in his first game as a Patriot. Aidan Hebert added 10 but Gray-New Gloucester didn’t have a match for Falmouth inside, either in terms of scoring or controlling the glass.
“At the end of the day they dominated boards,” said Gray-New Gloucester’s Ian McCarthy, who was making his debut as a varsity coach. “They were getting three chances to our one and when you’re getting kick-outs from the paint to wide-open 3s, they’re going to knock them down. We’ve got to clean that up.”
Halligan recorded his 584th career win as a high school basketball coach.
“It’s a brand-new team and we’re still trying to define roles. Still trying to find the pieces, so we’ll get better,” Halligan said.
Based on the way Falmouth outscored Gray 40-18 in the middle two quarters it’s already pretty good. Falmouth’s defense held Gray to 7 of 32 shooting from the floor and just 1 of 9 on 3-pointers in that span. Even when Simonds went to the bench with three personal fouls, Falmouth pushed a 48-31 lead with 4:34 left in the third quarter to 62-35 at the end of the quarter. Tyler Simmons in his first varsity game relieved Simonds and scored a pair of buckets. Mann and Burks hit threes. Stowell scored inside.
“Especially in front of this big home opener crowd we wanted to get a good win and I think we did,” Stowell said.
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