FAIRFIELD — Pete McLaughlin knows what it takes to win in Folsom Gymnasium — after all, he played his high school games here.
The compact nature of the gym at Lawrence High School creates for a loud, potentially intimidating environment that makes life difficult for opposing teams. It’s even more imposing when the Bulldogs are good, which makes wins like the 54-47 victory McLaughlin’s Messalonskee Eagles got Tuesday even more special.
“I grew up here; this is my home town, I’m an alum, and my rule is I don’t lose in my home gym,” said McLaughlin, Messalonskee’s head coach, who played at Lawrence from 2000-03. “When you come here, it feels as if there’s about 2,000 people screaming on top of you, and for us to be comfortable in that environment says a lot about these guys and their commitment to each other.”
It was the cherry on top of a January turnaround that’s seen Messalonskee become one of the hottest teams in Maine high school basketball. Winners of five of their past six, the Eagles have gone from the doldrums of Class A North to bonafide contenders in a matter of three weeks.
The season certainly didn’t start this way for Messalonskee, which went 1-8 in the first half of the regular season. On Jan. 10, though, Messalonskee defeated Camden Hills 65-51 to mark the start of a six-game stretch that’s included wins over Cony, Gardiner, Maine Central Institute and Tuesday’s win over Lawrence (8-7).
It’s a product, McLaughlin said, of Messalonskee (6-9) establishing itself on defense. The Eagles, who allowed 62.6 points per game over their first nine games but only 49.7 points per game over their past six, showed that Tuesday in holding Lawrence to one of its worst offensive outputs of the season.
“(Lawrence is) an incredible 3-point shooting team, and that was an emphasis because, the first time we played them, they had 13 3s,” McLaughlin said. “Tonight, we had great communication on their ball-screen action on the perimeter and their dribble hand-offs, and we limited those opportunities.”
In addition to holding Lawrence to five 3-pointers, Messalonskee also got three steals each from Drake Brunelle and Merrick Smith. Smith, a 6-foot-9 sophomore who currently leads the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference in blocks at 3.4 per game, also had three of those while securing nine rebounds.
Smith was also critical for the Eagles on offense as he had 18 points and drew frequent double-teams as a result of his size advantage. When smothered in the paint, the sophomore either kicked it out to Messalonskee’s shooters or used his nifty post moves to score anyway.
“It’s just something that takes time,” Smith, who also leads the Eagles in points (13.5) and rebounds (11.8) per game, said of his post prowess. “It’s time in the gym, that extra time at practice, before practice, outside of practice. I put in a lot of work to get better.”
Messalonskee’s Merrick Smith, center, gets a hand on the ball for the defensive rebound against Lawrence’s Lucas Campbell (20) and Parker Higgins, left, in the first half during a boys basketball game Tuesday in Fairfield. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
There was one brief lapse defensively for Messalonskee, which allowed nine points to Lawrence’s Conner Nutting (17 points) in a span of less than two minutes to let a 36-27 lead evaporate. Yet after Walter Fegel and Sam Dube hit 3-pointers to put the Eagles back in front, the team regrouped to hold off the Bulldogs down the stretch.
“We knew we had to come together and play better defense as a team, really,” Parent said. “We were playing one-on-one defense there, and that’s why he kind of went off there for a second. We needed to rotate and help, and we got better on defense with our rotations.”
Parent, who added 11 points and four rebounds in the win, is the lone senior on a Messalonskee team that sports a rather young starting lineup. Three of the other four starters — Brunelle, Smith and Ty Bernier — are sophomores, and the fourth, Sam Dube, is a junior.
Although it’s a unit that wasn’t exactly bursting with experience coming into the season, it’s also one that’s grown exponentially throughout the year. That growth has helped fuel Messalonskee’s improvement on the defensive end, where McLaughlin said his team is playing with a confidence not usually seen in younger players.
“Going up against seniors and juniors, there’s a physicality and a speed to the game that’s not something they’ve experienced,” McLaughlin said. “They have that confidence in themselves that they can go out and get consecutive stops in a row to close out games like this.”
Messalonskee did it, as McLaughlin noted, in an environment that’s supposed to intimidate players not accustomed to the intensity of varsity games in Folsom Gym. Instead of that crowd rattling the Eagles, a sophomore-heavy unit playing in an even livelier environment on Lawrence’s Senior Night spoiled the festivities.
The separation between Messalonskee and the league’s bottom-two teams, Gardiner and Erskine Academy, means the Eagles are tournament-bound. They might not have one of the top seeds two weeks from now, but their recent form is sure to have the teams that do on the lookout.
“Whether it’s Brewer or whoever, there ain’t no one who can stop us,” Smith said. “We’re not worried about anyone here.”
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