AUGUSTA — Brandon Ouellette didn’t know the tournament record for 3-pointers made in a game was within his range, even for a moment after he broke it.
“The crowd went crazy and I looked over at my teammates and said, “What was that about?'” Ouellette said.
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After some subpar shooting in Saturday’s quarterfinals, the Forest Hills senior guard figured out quickly that everything else was within his range during Wednesday’s Western Class D semifinal.
“In warmups Saturday, I wasn’t on and I felt that,” said Ouellette, who scored five points and failed to make a 3-pointer in the Tigers’ win over North Yarmouth Academy. “Today, I hit my first four or five shots and I knew it was time to come back.”
Ouellette drained eight 3-pointers, a new record for the Western D tournament, en route to 34 points as the top-seeded Tigers rolled over No. 4 Seacoast Christian, 78-41.
Forest Hills (20-0) will face No. 3 Hyde in the regional final at 11:45 a.m. Saturday.
Ouellette broke the record of seven 3-pointers, set by Buckfield’s Randy Poulin in 2000, with a shot from the left corner with a minute, 2 seconds left in regulation.
The first 3-pointer came late in the first quarter as the Tigers were building a 20-10 lead. Forest Hills coach Anthony Amero said he could tell Ouellette was feeling confident in his shot by his body language whenever he called a play for him.
“I knew he’d dialed in,” Amero said. “If we’d gotten a couple of better looks for him, I think he could have really gone off in the first half. We just couldn’t get it to him quick enough.”
Encouraging words from Amero and his staff helped Ouellette rebound from Saturday’s misfires.
“My coaches told me to keep shooting, keep shooting, and they’re going to fall,” Ouellette said.
He hit three 3-pointers in the second quarter, including one that he banked in from about 25 feet that helped give Forest Hills a 41-17 lead at halftime.
Ouellette had plenty of help in the paint from fellow seniors Ryan Petrin (23 points, 17 rebounds), Tanner Daigle (10 points, 10 rebounds) and Matt Turner (eight points, nine rebounds). Wednesday just happened to be Ouellette’s day.
“We have four seniors and anybody can go off for 25 on any given night,” Ouellette said.
Saturday, the quartet will be playing in their third regional final in four years.
“They just have a lot of real athletic guys, and that saves them a lot,” Seacoast Christian coach Matthew Cardinal said. “They have those seniors. They have really good ball-handlers. All of the pieces that they needed are there for them.”
Tim Yeaton led Seacoast Christian (17-3) with 16 points and nine rebounds.
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
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