AUGUSTA, Maine- Have a night Greely High School. The Greely boys basketball team capped off a 2 for 2 night for Greely teams for a second straight year, pulling away from a pesky Lawrence Bulldogs club 62-45 in a Maine Principals’ Association Class A state championship game at the Augusta Civic Center. It is the third straight state title for the Rangers.
Lawrence, the surprise champion of Class A North, went almost seven minutes in the opening quarter without a field goal or a point. Kobe Nadeau finally scored to break the ice, but four first quarter points from Andrew Storey and Zach Brown had Greely up 10-2 at the end of the first eight minutes. Storys second basket was a steal near the end of the quarter where he went in all alone and reverse dunked it in, getting the Rangers crowd stirred up. More of the same in the second, as Greely widened the margin to 16-2 and led by as many as 16 later in the quarter. The Bulldogs never got closer than 10, trailing 29-16 at halftime. Rangers guard Logan Bagshaw went off in the second quarter, hitting a pair of three pointers and also 4 two point field goals and scoring 14 of the 19 points scored by Greely.
Greely (19-3) took their largest lead when Bagshaw was fouled and made all three at the line to make it 36-18 midway through the third quarter. Dylan Martin-Hachey provided a spark in the final few minutes of the quarter, coming off the Lawrence bench to score two baskets to give the Bulldogs some life headed to the fourth quarter at 38-26. Nick Robertson scored 12 of the final 19 points for Lawrence, but they never got closer than 11 in the final eight minutes as six points from Brown and Storey, and five from Mikey Coppersmith, helped the Rangers build the lead to 20 and put the Bulldogs away. 43 points were scored in the final quarter of the Class A season, after the teams combined for just 64 through three quarters.
Bagshaw finished with a game high 21 points and five assists. Brown had 14, while Storey finished with 11. Coppersmith had a good fourth quarter to finish with seven points and six rebounds. Robertson also had a big fourth quarter and led Lawrence with 16 points. Martin-Hachey added nine, while Nadeau had seven points and five rebounds. The Bulldogs finish their season at 13-9. Lawrence lost their first four games of the regular season and entered the North Tournament as the #4 seed, and upset top seed Cony in the semifinals and then knocked off another surprise #7 Skowhegan in the regional final to make it to the state final.
The Greely boys basketball team celebrates with the gold ball after defeating Lawrence in the Class A state title game on Friday, March 1, 2019 at the Augusta Civic Center. It was the third straight state title for the Rangers. Photo by Chris Lessner (click to enlarge)
GR 10 19 9 24- 62
LH 2 14 10 19- 45
Rebounds- Greely 22 Lawrence 11
Free throws- Greely 11-16 Lawrence 6-7
Turnovers- Greely 9 Lawrence 15
