Gallant leads Rams’ rout of Warriors

loading...

BANGOR – The last time the Bangor and Nokomis boys basketball teams met, the game went down to the last shot.

Thursday night at the Bangor Auditorium, the second encounter of the season between the schools was virtually decided by the first shot, a baseline jumper by Bangor sophomore Aaron Gallant.

Gallant went on to score 18 points and Bangor thumped the Warriors of Newport 68-28.

The Rams improved to 5-1 with the win while Nokomis dropped to 3-2.

Bangor shut down Nokomis’ scoring duo of Luke Hayden and Ryan McLellan. Hayden finished with 14 points, but nothing came easy for the 6-foot-6 senior. McLellan suffered through a 4-for-17 shooting night. The Warriors hit on only 27 percent of their shots, going 12-for-43 from the floor.

“We worked on help-side defense all week and it is finally starting to click,” Gallant said.

Offensively, the Rams ran a patient set, running off screens and making quick passes to open shooters. The system particularly benefited Gallant, who at 6-2 was being guarded man-to-man by the much larger Hayden.

“I’m probably a little quicker than he is. I just got outside and got some open looks and knocked them down,” Gallant said.

Gallant canned his first four shots of the game and finished connecting on 7 of 12 shots from the floor and was 4-for-4 from the free throw line. The Rams as a team shot at a 44 percent clip, hitting on 26 of 58 shots. Bangor also protected the ball, turning it over only nine times.

As smoothly as Bangor’s offense ran, the Warriors’ offense sputtered. Nokomis could find no rhythm and turned the ball over 22 times. The explosive McLellan, who had scored 32 points Tuesday night in a win over Hampden Academy, was being defended by senior guard Zak Ray. He was frustrated into taking off-balance shots while on the move.

“It was a team effort… My teammates helped me the whole game. Ryan beat me a few times and my teammates came up big, stepping up and giving me help,” Ray said.

Ray finished with 10 points, four assists, and three steals.

The Rams’ defensive effort was such that they outscored the Warriors 20-3 in the third quarter and 19-8 in the fourth.

“That’s what you call an old-fashioned butt-whipping,” Nokomis coach Jim DiFrederico said. “They did everything that we talked about that we needed to do and everything we prepared for. They did it and we didn’t. They played as close to a perfect game as I’ve ever seen a team play.”

Hayden finished with three blocks, three steals, and eight rebounds for the Warriors.

RAMS 68, WARRIORS 28

Bangor (5-1) Nokomis (3-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Jor. Heath 3 5 1 2 8 Rodrigue 0 0

Achorn 2 6 0 0 5 McLellan 4 17 0 0 8

Ray 3 7 2 2 10 Nichols 0 0 0 0

Gallant 7 12 4 4 18 Bradstreet 0 0

Dowe 2 4 0 0 4 Dunlop 0 2 0 0

Day 3 11 0 1 7 McDaniel 0 1 0

Conteh 0 0 2 2 2 Buzanoski 0 0

Prentiss 2 2 1 1 5 Price 0 3 2

Larochelle 0 0 0 0 0 Ellis 0 0 0

DeRosa 0 1 0 0 0 Hayden 7 13 14

Jos. Heath 0 1 0 0 0 Patten 0 0 0

K. Flynn 0 1 0 0 0 Mullis 1 4 4

R. Flynn 1 3 0 0 3

Cassidy 1 1 0 0 2

Weymouth 2 4 0 0 4

Totals 26 58 10 12 68 Totals 12 43 28

Bangor 19 29 49 68

Nokomis 7 17 20 28

3-pt. goals: Bangor (6-18): Ray 2-4, R. Flynn 1-1, Jor. Heath 1-3, Achorn 1-4, Day 1-5, Gallant 0-1; Nokomis: (0-9) McLellan 0-3, Dunlop 0-2, Rodrigue 0-2, Hayden 0-1, McDaniel 0-1

Attendance: 250 (est.)