The Nokomis boys basketball team got hot early and stayed hot versus Bangor on Thursday night, sinking the Rams 72-47 at home in Newport.
Led by senior guard Alex Grant (21 points; five 3-pointers) and junior forward Dawson Townsend (27 points; two 3-pointers), the Warriors converted nearly two-thirds of their shots beyond the arc and added to their lead every quarter, turning an 18-11 first quarter lead into a 25-point win.
Nokomis improved to 2-2 on the season, while Bangor remained winless at 0-4.
“The past two or three games we were struggling from three, so we’ve been really getting after it in practice,” Grant said. “Tonight it just clicked for us.”
Complementing Grant and Townsend were senior guard Connor Sides and sophomore forward Seth Bowden. Sides finished with eight points, two assists and two steals, while Bowden tacked on nine points; including a 3-pointer.
Bangor made six 3-pointers of their own — including a 65-foot beauty from senior point guard Damon Gonsalves to beat the halftime buzzer — but couldn’t get into a steady enough rhythm to match Nokomis offensively. Gonsalves and senior forward Ryan Ford were Bangor’s only double-digit scorers, with 10 and 11, respectively.
“We’re a little disconnected right now, but hopefully it will come back,” senior guard Kamron Tardif said. “Coach [Brad Libby] is giving us the tools to score, and the tools to win. It’s about taking the right shots — if we get open, we can hit them. It’s about effort.”
With only three seniors on Nokomis’ varsity squad, and seven sophomores on Bangor, Thursday night’s game was a matchup of two young, underdog teams. But Nokomis’ wins over Skowhegan (2-1) and now their Class AA neighbors to the East, are showing that the Warriors might be ahead of the curve.
“It’s good that we have a lot of young numbers,” Townsend said. “Us six [upperclassmen] have been good with helping the younger guys, and we’re seeing a lot of strong young players come into our program.”
“The seniors set the tone — they come to practice every day and go at it,” first-year Nokomis head coach Josh Grant added. “Having guys like that makes coaching much, much easier.”
Next up, the Warriors will host Camden Hills (2-2) on Saturday at 2 p.m., and the Rams will host Skowhegan on Saturday at noon.