AUGUSTA — Milo Belleau won’t turn down an outside shot if the defense gives it to him, but he’s more concerned with how he gets the shot than how often he gets it.

Belleau scored a game-high 20 points to go with 10 rebounds to lead defending Western C champion Waynflete to a 54-40 win over sixth-seeded Hall-Dale in the Western Class C quarterfinals Monday at the Augusta Civic Center.

No. 3 Waynflete will meet No. 2 Dirigo in the semifinals at 7 Thursday night.

Belleau was the constant through an off-shooting day for the Flyers (16-1), scoring 10 points in each half after settling down some early nerves.

“Milo is a very gifted player,” Waynflete coach Rich Henry said. “I think he was forcing a couple of shots in the first half, but in the second half, it was coming a little more naturally for him.”

“If you had told me he only had 20 I’d say we’d have a better chance to win. It felt like he had 30,” Hall-Dale coach Chris Ranslow said. “He’s real good off the catch-and-shoot on the 3. It was clear he had it going at one point. Couple that with the fact that he goes strong left…”

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Belleau hit a pair of 3-pointers and Abel Alemayo added a third as the Flyers extended a 27-26 lead to 36-30 late in the third quarter. Will Nelligan joined the long-range party to make it 41-32 early in the fourth.

Ryan Sinclair pulled Hall-Dale (13-7) back within six with a steal and layup midway through the quarter, but Harry Baker-Connick (12 points) answered with a drive and the Bulldogs never got any closer.

Wesley LaPointe led the Bulldogs with nine points and 15 rebounds, while Sinclair added seven points.

The teams combined to make just three of 26 shots in the first quarter. Hall-Dale’s last lead came early in the second quarter when LaPointe hit a jumper to make it 12-10. Then Belleau’s 3-pointer set off a 9-0 Waynflete run that included a pair of hoops from Yai Deng.

Waynflete packed in its zone to force the Bulldogs to shoot from the perimeter, suffocate the high-low game they might use to counter the zone, and keep them off the offensive boards.

“We knew that (keeping Hall-Dale off the offensive glass) was a must. We had to do that,” Henry said. “That was table stakes.”

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Not only to deny the Bulldogs second-chance points, but to get the Flyers into their bread-and-butter offensively.

“Getting rebounds and getting out in transition is the game we want to play, not the game they want to play. I think that’s really what made the difference,” Belleau said. “Rebounding is huge. We’ve got a bunch of guys that are athletic as our bigs, so I guess the tough part is being able to find a player to box out because (Hall-Dale) is kind of scrambling. They like to send four to the boards.”

Quinn Stebbins brought Hall-Dale back with a pair of 3-pointers that helped make it a three-point game, 25-22, at halftime.

Those were the only 3-pointers the Bulldogs made in 13 attempts.

“We were trying to play as active as possible in our zone to contest their 3-point shot, but we felt like if we had to give something up, as aggressive as they are on the glass, we were going to give up the 3-point shot,” Henry said.

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638

rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33


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