GARDINER — With a ragged start befitting a team that has had its practice time limited by weather, injuries and illnesses lately, the Gardiner boys basketball team realized it was going to have to roll up its sleeves to get past Maine Central Institute on Thursday night.

The Tigers pounded the ball inside, attacked the offensive glass and buckled down defensively to pull away from the Huskies, 57-37.

Seth McFarland led all scorers with 14 points and six rebounds and Jordan Lamb chipped in with 11 points and six boards for the Tigers. Gardiner did much of its damage from the free throw line (27-for-35), which helped it fight through some first-half offensive struggles (8-for-28 shooting).

“It was a team effort tonight. I think we got five guys with five rebounds. And then the defensive pressure just to get the ball moving a little bit,” Gardiner coach Jason Cassidy said. “They committed to the game plan offensively.”

Gardiner (12-3) missed its first six shots but kept the Huskies (9-6) from opening up anything more than a five-point lead in the first quarter.

The shooting woes continued into the second quarter, but the Tigers gave themselves some important second chances on the offensive glass (10-0 in the first half) then went on an 11-0 run to take the lead.

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Slade Emery hit a 3-pointer to give MCI a 17-13 lead midway through the second quarter. That would be the Huskies’ last points for the next three minutes. McFarland kicked off the Gardiner run with a floater in the lane. A hoop by Lamb and two free throws by Joe Harnett put the Tigers in front, then Alex LaPointe (nine points five rebounds) converted a three-point play and Brian Dunn scored on a putback to make it 24-17.

“Seth and Alex haven’t practiced since two nights before the (Jan. 23) Winslow game. We’ve just been bitten with the flu and Alex has had a tough ankle and we’ve been practicing with seven guys,” Cassidy said. “Our defense was incredible the first half to hold them to 19, but the offensive flow just wasn’t going.”

“I thought Gardiner’s tenacity on the boards was definitely the difference,” MCI coach Josh Tardy said. “They started exerting their will a little bit in that second quarter. We had a couple of plays that could have gone our way and didn’t and all of a sudden we go from a one-point game to down five. At the end of the day, foul trouble heard us, and Gardiner’s a very good team.”

MCI scored six of the first eight points of the second half to cut the margin to 26-25, but then Gardiner started to exploit the Huskies’ foul trouble by going inside.

“We wanted to run but then, really, we had to attack in the post. They’re physical and they were fouling,” Cassidy said. “We really made an effort to go to Jordan and even the subs coming off the bench, Josh and Kevin (Frankhauser), tried to get it into them.”

Eli Fish scored six points in an 11-2 Gardiner run that made it 39-27 Tigers late in the third. The Tigers made five of their first six shots from the field in the quarter.

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Josh Buker led MCI with 11 points, while Emery added 10.

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638

rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33


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