By Wayne E. Rivet
Staff Writer

FRYEBURG — Colby Locke was eager to play.

When the Raiders were buried early by Falmouth last Thursday, Fryeburg Academy Coach Sedge Saunders pulled his starters.

“I hoped our starters would be hungrier Saturday,” the coach said.

Locke and point guard Bright Amoako certainly were. Locke dominated inside, scoring 25 points and hauling down 7 rebounds as Fryeburg snapped an eight-game losing skid with a 47-44 victory over Lake Region at Wadsworth Arena. Amoako triggered the Raider offense with quick moves to the basket, scoring 13 points to go along with 5 rebounds.

Coach Saunders liked what he saw from his senior center.

“Colby has had a good year overall. He hit a bit of a wall after the Christmas break, but really battled against a much bigger Greely team. Obviously, he had a great game Saturday night. After a disappointing outing against Falmouth, Colby stepped it up and gave us the boost we needed,” Coach Saunders said. “When he gets touches in the paint, especially on the low block, he can be unstoppable. He posted strong, called for the ball, and we got it to him. Sometimes, Colby has his man pinned behind him, but we don’t get it to him. Saturday, we did.”

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Fryeburg Academy 47

Bright Amoako 5-2-13, Colby Locke 11-3-25, Walker Mallory 1-0-3, Djordje Obradovic 0-1-1, Bobby Ramsay 1-0-2, Ian Sundgren 1-0-3, Mike Costa. 3-Pointers: Amoako, Mallory, Sundgren. FT: 6-13. Turnovers: 16. Rebounds: Locke 7, Costa 5, Sundgren 2, Obradovic 3, Amoako 5, Ramsay 1, Knowles 1, Mallory 1. Blocks: Locke 2.

Lake Region 44

Kevin Gilson 9-1-22, Alex Hartford 3-3-9, Mike Triglione 3-0-7, Mike Mageles 1-0-3, Danny Place 1-0-3, Alex Hall, Josh Van Eeuwen. 3-Pointers: Gilson (3), Mageles, Place, Triglione. FT: 4-8. Turnovers: 9. Rebounds: Gilson 7, Hartford 5, Hall 1, Place 3, Triglione 3, Van Eeuwen 2. Blocks: Hartford 3.

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Locke scored six of his team’s final nine points.

Lake Region (2-7) had a shot at sending the game into overtime. Guard Danny Place came up with a steal, and Kevin Gilson converted a lay-up to make it 47-43. Following a FA turnover, Gilson was fouled, but made just 1-of-2 foul shots with 46.7 seconds left. Fryeburg had a chance to ice the game, but a missed free throw gave the Lakers life. With 14.5 seconds left, Gilson drove the lane and dished the ball out to Mike Triglione for an open look at a 3-pointer. But, the ball went off the rim. LR’s Danny Place snagged the rebound, and attempted to take a step behind the 3-point arc to fire up a potential game equalizer with 4.2 seconds left but was called for traveling.

“We were out of timeouts. Kevin made a nice play, drew Mike Triglione’s man (to him), and kicked out the ball to him (Triglione) for an open three. Mike

HOLDING HIS GROUND — With Lake Region’s Mike Mageles (left) looking for a teammate to pass to, Fryeburg Academy guard Bright Amoako looks to deny the pass during Saturday’s game at Wadsworth Arena. (Rivet Photo)

had made one earlier, and shoots a good percentage from three. He had a good look at it, but just missed,” Lake Region Coach J.P. Yorkey said. “Danny hurt his shooting hand earlier in the half, and Kevin was well defended (over the final seconds). We expected to play better, but we didn’t give up. We made a nice run in the fourth quarter. We had guys playing hurt and sick, but they still battled.”

Fryeburg (2-8) jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but Alex Hartford (nine points) tied the game at 7-7 with a strong move inside. FA regained the lead on an Ian Sundgren 3-pointer and an aggressive move to the basket by Amoako.

“Bright had an off game Thursday, which will happen when you are a sophomore playing a new position. He responded very well Saturday. He made better decisions with the ball and got us into our offense more efficiently,” Coach Saunders said. “He also had some key rebounds, which is quite impressive coming from a point guard.”

Neither team shot particularly well in the second quarter with the Lakers holding a 10-8 advantage, keyed by 3-point shots from Triglione and Mike Mageles. Locke did most of his damage within the paint, drawing fouls and making 3-of-4 foul shots to give the Raiders a 20-19 lead at halftime.

“We did okay on Locke in the first half, but he hurt us in the third quarter,” Coach Yorkey said. “We couldn’t get the charge call inside, and we didn’t help off the ball as well as we did in the first half.”

Locke was a difference maker in the third, scoring 10 of the Raiders’ 18 points. Lake Region closed the gap to 28-27 as Gilson sank a 3-pointer and Hartford made two foul shots. But, the Raiders regained momentum behind Locke, who triggered a 9-2 run to close out the quarter by scoring six points.

Gilson caught fire to start the fourth, scoring six straight points. Yet, the Lakers were unable to cut into the Raider lead as Locke responded with three strong inside moves for six points, putting FA up 44-35 with 4:13 left in the game.

Lake Region made it interesting down the stretch as Place and Gilson knocked down 3-pointers to make it 46-41.

“Lake Region did a nice job trying to exploit us especially in terms of match-ups. We had trouble with Gilson and when we helped, he did a nice job of kicking to the shooters,” Coach Saunders said. “Hartford took Colby off the dribble a couple times — so we had him sag more and force Hartford to shoot it. When Gilson’s penetration started hurting us, we switched up the defense to provide more help. To his credit, he made some amazing shots — a couple from a different area code.”

Coach Saunders felt the key to the game was a solid consistent effort for 32 minutes.

“We knew if we ran our offense, we could get good shots and the kids did a nice job of executing. We knew Lake Region would make some runs, we just wanted to limit their runs and make sure we countered them with runs of our own,” he said. “Obviously, Colby gave us a nice cushion in terms of a lead with his play in the third quarter, and in my opinion that was the difference.”

Coach Saunders added that he expected a battle from the Lakers, and that is what the Raiders received.

“Lake Region is better than their record. J.P. is doing a nice job with a group that doesn’t have a lot of experience. They are and will be a dangerous team down the stretch,” he said. “I’m proud of our guys. They’ve battled all year while being undermanned. They are a great group of kids who represent the school with the utmost class.”

Coach Yorkey felt his team was a little out of sync.

“We missed and passed up shots we usually make. We didn’t push the ball like we wanted to, and we didn’t get deep enough into our half-court offense,” he said. “Credit Fryeburg and Coach Saunders for their defensive scheme in the first half. They did some nice things.”

Last week

• Falmouth trouncing. Falmouth stormed out to a 30-13 halftime lead, and then put up a 17-1 third quarter for a 61-17 victory over Fryeburg Academy. FA managed just 4 points in the second half.

Raider scorers were: Locke 6, Sundgren 3, Knowles 3, Amoako 2, Ramsay 2, Obradovic 1.

Up next

Lake Region travels to Greely this Friday for a 7 p.m. game, and hosts Cape Elizabeth on Saturday, also at 7 p.m. Next week, the Lakers host Poland Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. (JV game is at 2:30 p.m.), and travel to Freeport on Jan. 28 at 6:30 p.m.

The Lakers were to play Yarmouth Tuesday night, but the snowstorm pushed the contest to last night, Jan. 19. Results in next week’s edition.

Fryeburg Academy hosts Wells tonight, Jan. 20 at 6:30 p.m. The Raiders travel to Falmouth on Saturday for a 7 p.m. game. Next week, the Raiders travel to Gray-NG on Tuesday for a 6 p.m. game, and host Poland on Friday, Jan. 28 at 6:30 p.m.