LIVERMORE FALLS – The Livermore Falls Andies were hot when they started Saturday night’s MVC clash with once-beaten Boothbay. Unfortunately for them, they’re leading scorer and his Boothbay counter-part were some of the warmest people on the floor.

Mike Durrell, Livermore’s 6-foot-6 center and the league’s leading scorer (22 ppg), had to battle a 101-degree temperature, in addition to 6-foot-4 Boothbay center Kris Noonan. Noonan, meanwhile, relished the battle of two of the league’s top big man and showed no mercy for his feverish counterpart. He finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds and helped the Seahawks take control in the second quarter en route to a 67-50 win. “When we play a good player like Durrell, Noonan steps up,” Boothbay coach I.J. Pinkham said. “He gets excited about it and wants to show him how he can play.”

Durrell finished with a team-high 14 points and four rebounds. Davis Mercier added 12 and Zach Keene nine for the Andies (7-4). The Seahawks (9-1) had enough other scoring options to keep the Andies from focusing on Noonan, as Roy Arsenault finished with 13 points, Pat Norton 10 and Owen Johnson nine (and six assists).

“I’ve got about three or four guys around 10 or 12 points (a game), so we do have good balance,” Pinkham said.

“Mike was a little sick, so he was dragging,” Livermore Falls coach Randy Parenteau said. “We played pretty well. Turnovers killed us. Our help defense wasn’t there tonight. They’re a very athletic team, and to match up five guys like they have athletically is tough.”

The Andies made nine of 14 shots in a fast-paced first quarter, most of them from mid-range. Mercier scored eight points in the period. The Seahawks started to pound the ball inside to Noonan midway through the quarter and were able to keep pace for an 18-18 tie after one.

Livermore Falls shot just 32 percent the rest of the game and were virtually shut out on the offensive boards. A Durrell hoop tied the game at 22, but the Seahawks shot 8-for-12 and scored 13 of the final 15 points of the quarter to take a 35-24 cushion into the intermission.

“They only missed (five) shots in the first quarter, so we tried to get up on their shooters. And they didn’t have much trouble with our press in the first, so we did get out of that,” Pinkham said. “We just played halfcourt man-to-man defense, and we played it pretty solid.”

The Andies got back within nine on two occasions early in the second half, following hoops by Keene and Mark O’Shea, but never really threatened after Boothbay went on an 11-2 run capped by an Arsenault 3-pointer with 4:31 left in the third.

“This is a very big stretch for us,” Parenteau said. “We’ve got Dirigo on Tuesday, and then we’ve got about four or five days off and then we go to Wiscasset.”

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