Fryeburg Academy guard Ben Southwick nearly comes up with a block during Monday's game against Kennebunk. (Rivet Photo)                                     KENNEBUNK (64)
Jacob Boothby 2-0-4, Travon Bradford 6-1-13, Dakota Ewy 1-0-2, Ryan Guevin 1-0-3, Jack Lapham 7-6-20, Zachary MacKinnon 5-2-14, Justin Wiggins 2-4-8.
3-Pointers: Guevin, MacKinnon 2
Turnovers: 20
FT: 15-of-19 (79%)
FG: 23-of-51 (45%)
Rebounds: 34
RAIDERS (58)
Jonathan Burk 7-1-15, Winston Richards 2-0-4, Ben Southwick 5-0-11, Ryan Gullikson 7-3-20, Cody Gullikson 2-0-5, Brandon Ludwig 1-0-3, Nicholis L’Heureux-Carland, Henry Santana, Ben Darling.
3-Pointers: Southwick, R. Gullikson 3, C. Gullikson, Ludwig
Turnovers: 14
FT: 4-of-10 (40%)
FG: 24-of-60 (40%)
Rebounds: 28, R. Gullikson 9, Burk 6, C. Gullikson 4, Ludwig 3, Southwick 2, Richards 2, L’Heureux-Carland 1, Santana 1.

By Wayne E. Rivet
Staff Writer
FRYEBURG — It’s the little things that make the difference between two evenly matched teams.
Kennebunk won two key battles Monday night, and captured a 64-58 road victory over Fryeburg Academy.
The Rams closed out the game by sinking 6-of-6 foul shots — by three different players — over the final 47.2 seconds to hold off the Raiders.
And, Kennebunk controlled the paint, out-rebounding the Raiders 34-28, led by 6-foot-6 senior Jack Lapham, who scored 20 points and collected 15 rebounds.
The Raiders struggled in the first quarter as they tried to find cracks in the Kennebunk zone. After taking a 7-3 lead, the Raiders saw Kennebunk take control with a 10-0 run to end the quarter.
FA shot just 3-of-14 from the field over the first eight minutes.
“It was the first zone we’ve seen all year, but it’s not like we didn’t expect it,” Fryeburg Academy Coach Sedge Saunders said. “Right now we are playing very undisciplined, especially on the defensive end. We are in no man’s land a good deal of the time and we need to tighten up on our positioning in the zone. We were a step slow much of the time, not anticipating but reacting to what Kennebunk did. We got killed on the boards because we were out of position as we allowed numerous passes to high post and mid post, which put us in a scramble.”
Fryeburg closed the gap to 20-17 midway through the second quarter as Jonathan Burk found some operating room along the baseline for a reverse layup and Winston Richards showed a soft touch by connecting on a short jumper. But, the Raiders managed just one field goal over the final 2:46 — an inside drive by Ryan Gullikson, who tied for game-high honors with 20 points.
Meanwhile, Kennebunk converted on several second chance opportunities. The Rams also passed well in the final seconds, moving the ball quickly and finding Travon Bradford inside for an easy score with two seconds left.
Fryeburg trailed 29-20 at the half.
Coach Saunders looked to press the tempo in the second half, and it worked — somewhat. After committing just four turnovers in the first half, the Rams lost the handle 16 times in the second half.
Fryeburg made a strong run midway through the third quarter as Gullikson knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to close the margin to 36-34 with 3:44 left. FA’s woes on the glass continued to haunt them as Lapham scored twice on offensive rebounds and Zach MacKinnon connected on a three-pointer as the Rams closed the period with a 7-0 run for a 47-37 lead. For the quarter, Kennebunk was 7-of-10 from the floor.
“We wanted to press them and speed up the game along with taking the ball out of their primary ball handler’s hand and forcing others to bring the ball up and make decisions. We never were able to pressure them as we intended,” Coach Saunders said. “We took a lot of bad shots. I say ‘bad shots’ because we were either not in rhythm or the ball never went inside. We rarely got the ball to high-post or mid-post. We have to be much more disciplined on both ends of the court. I was very disappointed with bad closeouts and allowing straight line drives. We weren’t in good support position off the ball, as well. It was the worst I’ve seen us play defensively.”
Yet, the Raiders still had a chance to pull out the win.
Ben Southwick and Gullikson each connected on three-pointers, and then Southwick scored twice off turnovers as the Raiders again were in striking distance, 52-49 with 3:58 left in the game.
Turnovers and missed free throws (1-of-4) hurt Fryeburg down the stretch as they missed several chances to either pull even or pull ahead. Kennebunk, however, made the key plays when the game was in the balance, including feeding the ball inside to 6-foot-6 center Bradford, who scored twice to push the Ram lead to 58-49.
Fryeburg refused to quit. Pressure forced Kennebunk turnovers, and FA capitalized as Burk scored twice in the final minute, and Cody Gullikson hauled in a high pass for a breakaway layup with 16.4 seconds left, leaving FA down just 60-58.
Unable to force another turnover, the Raiders were forced to foul. Kennebunk sealed the deal at the foul line.
“We were down three halfway through the fourth and had two empty possessions, and then we give up a layup because of bad transition defense. We have a long way to go before we become the defensive team we’ve been the last three years,” Coach Saunders said. “We have a long way to go before we are a good defensive team. I have to do a better job of helping them understand positioning and rotation. The good news is we can play a lot better and we have some younger guys who will give us good minutes in the second half of the year as they gain confidence.”
RAIDER SCOREBOARD
Raiders 62
Freeport 44
Ryan Gullikson netted a game-high 29 points to lead the Raiders past Freeport last Friday night.
The Raiders built a 35-23 halftime lead, and won each quarter on the night, scoring 20 points in the third to move out to a 55-38 lead.
Jonathan Burk scored 11 points for the Raiders. Cody Gullikson chipped in 10 points while Ben Southwick added eight, Winston Richards three and Henry Santana had one point.
Up next: The Raiders visit Poland Saturday for a 5:30 p.m. contest.