AUGUSTA — Mike Staples couldn’t repeat the words he said to his Valley boys basketball team at halftime of its Class D South semifinal Wednesday.
“No, you probably don’t want me to,” Staples laughed.
Whatever was said, the message worked.
Only up 25-22 at halftime, the No. 1 Cavaliers took control with a strong third quarter and earned a 64-40 win over No. 5 Buckfield at the Augusta Civic Center. Harry Louis scored 27 points, and Fisher Tewksbury added 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Cavaliers (20-0). The victory sets up a rematch of last year’s regional final, as Valley will meet No. 2 St. Dom’s (19-1) at 2:45 p.m. Saturday in Augusta.
“I’m going to be honest, it was an ugly win,” said Louis, a junior guard. “We’re not really thrilled. We’ll walk out of here with our heads up. But at the end of the day, we know we have a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be.”
“We realized that we needed to win, or we go home,” added Tewksbury. “We definitely had to pick it up, move the ball a little bit more and help our defense.”
Trenton Haskell scored 12 points for the Bucks, who finished 10-10. Brayden Monto scored 10 points, while Ryder Bragg added nine.
How did they get there?
• The Cavaliers kicked off the second half with a 14-0 run. Valley outscored Buckfield 26-8 in the third quarter and held a 51-30 lead going into the fourth. Louis, who was dropping shots with ease, scored 10 of his 27 points in the third.
“It’s a confidence booster, for sure,” Louis said. “For me, the only way I really get my confidence is if I’m hitting (shots). A lot of people tell me if I’m not hitting, to take it the basket, see the ball go through the hoop a couple times. Once that happens, you just get in that rhythm and my confidence goes up after that.”
Valley’s Levi Short grabs a rebound in front of Buckfield’s Trenton Haskell. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
• Louis and Tewksbury, Valley’s top scorers, had help from junior guard Kamdyn Conrad, who scored 11 points and had seven rebounds. Conrad hit a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to give Valley its 25-22 lead.
• The Bucks held strong throughout the first half, forcing 19 turnovers (31 for the game). Runs of 6-0 and 7-0 helped Buckfield outscore Valley 13-12 in the second quarter.
They said it
“Sometimes being 20-0 is a great thing. Sometimes being 20-0 can be a curse. The curse is you get stagnant, you get complacent, and you don’t really get full effort at all times. We’ve talked about it all year long, every practice, every pregame, we’re giving 32 minutes every game, every game, every game. You can see the athleticism that we have. We just don’t want to put the effort in at times, or it seems like that, anyway.” — Mike Staples
“When you see him hitting his shot, it’s momentum, it’s a momentum starter. The team gets hyped up because we’re hitting shots now. When he gets points, it’s huge.” — Tewksbury, on teammate Louis
Statistical leaders
Valley: Louis (27 points), Tewksbury (14 points, 10 rebounds), Conrad (11 points, 7 rebounds)
Buckfield: Haskell (12 points), Monto (10 points), Bragg (9 points)
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