With its usual scorers struggling, it took a workmanlike effort on the boards to keep the Red Riots unbeaten.
South Portland (7-0) overcame an early deficit and capitalized on a late-game technical by Scarborough to escape with a 54-50 win over the Red Storm (3-4) in Friday night’s SMAA boys basketball game at Scarborough High School.
Ryan Curit pulled down 12 rebounds and scored nine of his 11 points in the second half – many coming on second-chance opportunities – to lift the Riots, who struggled early and had limited production from their big guns. Keegan Hyland’s game-high 19 points is a good night for most other players, but the total was well below his near 30-per-game average, which leads the SMAA. Scarborough held the Riots’ second-leading scorer, Matt Lee, to just four points.
Craig Robinson paced the Storm with 18 points, six coming in the first quarter as Scarborough jumped to an early 12-4 lead. It was 15-7 in favor of the Storm early in the second quarter.
“What I’m most happy about is when we got down by (eight) points in the first half, how we battled back,” said South Portland coach Phil Conley. “I told the guys that how we are going to battle back is on the defensive end and on the glass at both ends. I thought in the second half, we did a really good job defensively and we did a great job on the glass.”
The Riots closed the first half with a 20-10 run and led 27-25 at halftime. Hyland, who hit a 3-pointer with 1:40 left in the first for his only points of the quarter, had eight points during the run.
The teams traded leads in the third as Robinson scored seven points while also blanketing Hyland, who was held to two points in the quarter. A top cross country runner in the fall, Robinson’s quickness and endurance allowed him to stay close to Hyland despite a minefield of screens to dodge each time down the floor.
“Craig’s a great kid,” said Scarborough coach Joe Johnson. “That’s why I put him on him. How many minutes did he sit? Not many. I tried to give him a chance to catch his breath. But he’s got a basketball body and mind. His dad’s a coach, so he’s got a great basketball IQ.”
South Portland led 39-38 entering the fourth quarter. Hyland converted a putback to start the quarter, but Robinson was fouled on a 3 and made all three free throws to tie it at 41-41 with 6:34 left. Hyland’s fadeaway jumper gave the Riots the lead again, but Conor Sullivan’s 3 put the Storm on top with 4:20 to go.
Spencer Bowring, who finished with 10 points, scored inside to make it 45-44 in favor of South Portland with 3:40 left. A minute late, Sullivan drained another 3 to give Scarborough a 47-45 advantage.
After Hyland rimmed out a jumper, Scarborough’s Garrett Alofs couldn’t convert a contested shot inside. He was whistled for a foul as he went for the rebound. He argued the call and received a technical. Hyland made both free throws to tie the score and South Portland received possession. Connor Hasson put back his own miss for his only points of the night, making it 49-47 in favor of South Portland with 1:48 to go.
“Garrett’s my captain,” said Johnson. “He’s a competitor. He made a bad move. (The official) does state final games. He’s not going to let people talk to him like that. He didn’t swear at him, but there’s no excuse. They were down two at that point. It was not a good time.”
After Scarborough’s Zach Bean (12 points) made two free throws with 1:09 left to make it 52-50, South Portland’s Jon DiBiase sank both ends of a 1-and-1 to extend the Riots’ lead to four with 30 seconds to go, accounting for the game’s final points.
For South Portland, which has scored 77 points or more in five of its seven games, the offensive output wasn’t ideal, but against a tough Storm defense, Conley isn’t complaining.
“In our last Christmas tournament game we didn’t do a very good job of taking the ball to the rim. In the last two or three days, we’ve really focused on taking the ball to the basket, rebounding it, and putting it back in. And it’s happening. We’re not settling for outside jump shots,” Conley said.
“I think Scarborough is a very scrappy team,” he added. “They play tough defensively. They make it hard on the offensive end because they’re pretty quick. That makes them a pretty good team and we’re happy to come away with a victory.”
While neither team has a ton of height – South Portland has two players listed at 6’4″ while Scarborough doesn’t have anyone over 6’3″ – Johnson credited the Riots with being more aggressive on the boards, which helped them overcome an off shooting night.
“They’re tough on the boards, or we just don’t block out. Is there a size difference? No, I don’t think so,” Johnson said.
It was the fourth straight loss for Scarborough, which began the season 3-0. Three of the four losses have been close.
“We’re right there,” Johnson said. “We just need to turn the corner. We just need to do a couple little things.”
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