FARMINGDALE — Madison muddled through some early offensive woes Monday night by drawing contact and getting to the free throw line.
It worked so well, the Bulldogs decided to take full advantage of the charity stripe and set up shop there for the rest of the night.
Madison shot 24-for-35 (69 percent) from the free throw line, taking advantage of a better than four-to-one advantage in free throw attempts and a strong inside game to defeat Hall-Dale, 67-62.
Chase Malloy and Mitch Jervais led Madison (5-2) with 17 points apiece while Sean Whalen added 12 points. Alec Byron and Jett Boyer led Hall-Dale (3-4) with 10 points each.
“We didn’t shoot them very well at the beginning of the game, then we made them at the end of the game when it counted,” said Madison coach Jason Furbush, whose team scored 12 of its 17 fourth-quarter points from the line. “We’re a real good free throw shooting team. We didn’t show it tonight.”
“Once we started spreading the floor and were able to create lanes, we just got the ball inside and put it up strong,” Whalen said.
Hall-Dale shot well against Madison’s zone and led 19-10 after the first period and took its biggest lead on a Quin Stebbins 3-pointer to star the second quarter. But Malloy almost single-handedly chipped away at the deficit from the free throw line, scoring six straight points from there to cut it to 24-22. A Byron runner gave Hall-Dale a 30-26 lead at halftime.
“We were 25-for-55 from the floor. That’s good for us,” Hall-Dale coach Chris Ranslow said. “We were shooting the basketball with confidence. We missed a couple down the stretch. We’re not strong enough for fade-aways. It seemed like we settled for too many down the stretch.”
Jarvais started scoring in the paint, including a couple of putbacks, to give Madison its first lead at 37-36.
“In the second half, our emphasis was on getting it inside, and we did. We didn’t in the first half,” Furbush said. “Mitch Jarvais really stepped up in the second half, along with Sean Whalen, our sophomore.”
“We haven’t really been pounding the ball inside, and this game we did a lot better,” said Jarvais, who had 12 rebounds, including five offensive.
Madison led by as much as seven in the third before Hall-Dale rallied to tie it at 57 on a Byron steal and pull-up jumper with 1:41 left. Malloy then hit a pair from the free throw line with 1:25 left to put Madison back up for good with 1:25 left.
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.