Pilsbury reaches goal as Braves thump Terriers

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BANGOR – As their team rushed out to a 27-3 lead in what would eventually become an 86-40 victory over the Thomas Terriers, Husson College fans in search of some intrigue were left counting their fingers on Monday night.

The magic number: Nine. That’s all junior guard Robert Pilsbury needed to reach the 1,000-point plateau.

Pilsbury’s points eventually came. But not on the kind of play he was hoping for.

“What I really wanted was to get my 1,000th point on a dunk,” admitted the flashy guard who has dunked just once in 39 games at the Bangor college.

He nearly got his chance.

But after scoring eight points and coming up with a steal 35 feet from the Thomas basket – that’s prime run-and-dunk territory, in case you’re wondering – the lone Terrier with a shot to stop him did just that.

Shelby Turcotte bumped Pilsbury at midcourt, just as he was getting up a full head of steam, and a foul was called. Pilsbury reached the milestone in unspectacular fashion: from the free throw line.

Husson improved to 12-7, 7-0 in the Maine Athletic Conference. The young Terriers dropped to 0-15, 0-7.

“We expected a struggle tonight,” said Thomas coach Chris Young, who pointed out that his team has played five games in the last 10 days. “We’re disappointed in our performance and our effort, but I think that’s a young team learning.”

Pilsbury finished with 19 points in only 27 minutes of action while Scott Griffin went 7-for-7 from the floor, scored 13 points, and grabbed 14 rebounds in 24 minutes. Randy Fletcher and Ryan Rivera contributed 13 points apiece and Quinson Lancaster made seven steals.

Thomas was led by Will Nickerson, who scored 10.

The Braves took a 45-13 lead into intermission, but started the second half with some sloppy play that drew the ire of coach Warren Caruso.

Caruso called timeout after his team had passed up a layup to try for an alley-oop pass-and-dunk to the 6-foot-1 Rivera early in the half.

“We got happy,” a sheepish Pilsbury said. “There’s nothing you can really do about that, because it’s the type of game that you just want to have fun and let other people score and shoot. And throw alley-oops to people and stuff like that.”

The attempt failed, and Caruso reiterated his pregame message during the timeout, and his team listened.

“We started talking yesterday, and into our pregame today: ‘You’ve got to keep focus. We’ve got to continue to do the things that we’ve been doing to make ourselves better, and we can’t take a step back in our execution and our effort,'” Caruso said.

“I thought through the first 20 minutes we did that very well, and the second 20 minutes we maybe didn’t do it quite as well.”

Thomas, which lost 1,700-point scorer Scott Raymond and 1,300-point scorer Matt Pitcher to graduation in May, never got into an offensive flow.

“[Losing five seniors who played significant minutes] brings in new players that I think will eventually be pretty good,” Young said. “But they’re nowhere near ready for this level of play against a team like this, a very talented Husson team, arguably the best team in the conference.”

BRAVES 86, TERRIERS 40

Thomas (0-16) Husson (12-7)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Kesel 3 6 0 0 6 Fletcher 6 13

Cardaci 2 15 1 2 5 Rivera 5 9 13

Caron 0 1 0 0 0 Lancaster 1 3

Magnusson 0 4 0 0 0 Pilsbury 7 15 4 4 19

Ray 1 3 3 9 5 Griffin 7 7 2 16

Turcotte 3 7 2 2 9 Armenakis 3 8

Nickerson 5 9 0 0 10 Ward 0 1 0

Laria 0 2 0 0 0 Galley 1 6 2

Woodworth 0 3 2 2 2 Cunningham 1 3

O’Brien 1 9 0 0 3 Cyr 4 8 9

Rouse 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 15 59 8 15 40 Totals 35 71 12 15 86

Thomas 13 40

Husson 45 86

3-pt. goals: Thomas (2-18): Kesel 0-2, Cardaci 0-5, Caron 0-1, Turcotte 1-3, Laria 0-1, O’Brien 1-6; Husson (4-16): Fletcher 1-1, Rivera 1-4, Lancaster 0-3, Pilsbury 1-6, Ward 0-1, Galley 0-2, Cunningham 1-2, Cyr 0-2

Attendance: 250 (est.)