FAIRFIELD — Good shooting can be contagious, but bad shooting, well, that can rip through a basketball team like the common cold, too. The Lawrence High School boys basketball team learned that Friday night.

At home against Hampden Academy, the preseason favorite to win Class A North, Lawrence went cold, then got colder. The Bulldogs shot just 5 for 48 from the field (10.4 percent) and the Broncos pulled away with a 52-16 win.

Hampden improved to 3-0, while Lawrence fell to 2-1.

“I thought our defensive scheme was good tonight. Obviously, they didn’t make shots. I hope we had something to do with that, but at the same point, I don’t expect them to shoot like that again all year,” Hampden coach Russ Bartlett said.

With 4:11 left in the second quarter, Lawrence’s Kobe Nadeau made a 3-pointer to cut Hampden’s lead to 19-8. The Bulldogs didn’t score again until Gavin Herrin made a layup with 6:19 to play in the fourth quarter. That was 13 minutes, 52 seconds of game time that saw Lawrence fail to connect on a shot.

“No. 1, Hampden is a very good defensive team. They got to our shooters. They knew who the shooters were,” Lawrence coach Jason Pellerin said. “In the first half, I thought we showed very good patience, trying to get a better shot. However, we did lose confidence. And we’ve got to find our inner resiliency on an individual and team basis so we don’t allow that to happen in the future.”

Lawrence guard Nick Robertson was coming off back-to-back 20 point games. The key to the Broncos was containing him and Nadeau. While Nadeau had just four points, Robertson was held scoreless.

“The goal was to make Robertson and Nadeau work hard. I thought we did that. They’re their two best players,” Bartlett said.

Hampden led 29-8 at the half and 41-8 after three quarters. With Lawrence’s defense rotating to double team Ian McIntyre in the low post, the Broncos moved the ball well to open up others in the offense. While McIntrye led all scorers with 14 points, Johnny Wolfington added 11 and Bryce Lausier had eight points for Hampden. While Lawrence’s offense was virtually non-existent, Pellerin was pleased with the defensive effort.

“I thought we showed some hustle. In years past, they’ve really dominated us on their offensive glass. We did OK defensive rebounding. It’s a bit of a shame that some of the things we did well, the guys are going to have a hard time getting past that, when you look at the final score,” Pellerin said.

Tommy Raye had 11 rebounds for the Broncos. To Bartlett, a win in loud Folsom Gym was a benchmark for his team. The Broncos return a lot of players with varsity experience, and this was an important road victory.

“This is a tough place to play. I thought last year, Tommy and Johnny and Ian were the only three that were ready to play here. I think we saw tonight there are a lot more guys who are ready to play here in this environment,” Bartlett said.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM

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