The Mariners fight at the net during a home loss to Jonesport. The teams face off again at Jonesport Monday, January 20, at 2:30 p.m. By Jack Scott
Deer Isle—The boys basketball team lost to an experienced Jonesport team 79-63 in front of a big crowd January 7. This game almost got out of hand despite the fact that we had 25 fouls and Jonesport had 18. There was a lot of banging under the basket where nothing was called and then players got frustrated and it got rougher. I don’t think either team was happy with the refereeing.
This was a typical Jonesport team. They were quick, aggressive on the boards, and played with a lot of hustle. We were tied near the end of the first quarter when Jonesport scored 6 points at the end to lead 20-14. With Coleman Brown sitting with 3 fouls, Jonesport out-hustled and out-shot us with four 3-pointers to stretch their lead to 46-27 at the half.
Though we scored more than them in the second half, we were in too big a hole to recover. Both teams shot well from the foul line, with Jonesport 21 of 27 and we were 24 of 29. Jonesport played like the top team in Class D with four players scoring between 13 and 17 points, and they wanted this game. Myles Brown had 27 points with 12 of 15 from the foul line, Coleman Brown had 14 despite having to sit with 4 fouls most of the second half, Dylan Thompson 8, Dillan Steele 7, and Zach Billings 6.
On January 9 the boys beat Sumner 70-62. They played us differently than before and were missing a couple players, but they made eight 3-pointers in this game. We opened up a close game to lead by 7 points at the half. We slowly stretched the lead and kept control of the game throughout. Coleman Brown had a big game with 25 points, Myles Brown 24, Dylan Thompson 11, and Nate Thompson and Zach Billings each had 5.
The boys are 8-2 and currently in fifth place with only a couple Heal Points separating 3 through 5. We took a licking against Jonesport, but it showed us what we need to do to stay near the top of the standings. We did do a lot of things well against Jonesport, but they were the hot team that night.