Boys basketball: St. Dom’s hits the glass, takes down Buckfield

BUCKFIELD — St. Dominic Academy turned rebounds into points in its 72-29 boys basketball victory over Buckfield on Thursday.

St. Dom’s coach, Josh LaPrell, said the Saints (7-0) used their athleticism to attack the boards.

“We are tall, we are long, we are athletic,” LaPrell said. “I think our shortest starter is 6-foot-1, and everyone else is 6-2 to 6-5, I think. We crash hard and we get good position on the glass, which is good. We try to get as many second-chance points as possible every game.”

Buckfield coach Jon Cadman said the Bucks (3-6) tried to keep the defense simple against the bigger St. Dom’s squad.

“We tried to box out, but they are long and they are athletic,” Cadman said. “It doesn’t matter what you do. They will get around you. They will jump over you, like they did multiple times, and get rebounds. It’s hard to slow them down. Very hard.”

Taylor Varney and Campbell Perryman each scored 14 points to lead the Saints.

“We are fortunate, where we could have all five guys average double figures,” LaPrell said. “We have had seven games now where I think we have had a different leading scorer in almost all of them.

“Cam and Taylor, they are the captains. They work hard. They lead by example and hold the guys to a high standard on what we are trying to do. I am happy when they find success.”

Twelve of the 14 players who played for the Saints scored at least two points.

Perryman said that he hopes the Saints can carry their momentum into Saturday’s game against Old Orchard Beach.

“We are really excited, we don’t play down to other teams,” Perryman said. “We just need to keep the momentum going, and I hope it continues the next game.”

From the opening tip, St. Dom’s was off and running. Varney got the scoring started with a quick layup.

After a Brayden Monto 3-pointer got the Bucks on the board and cut the deficit to 4-3, the Saints went on a 23-4 run to end the first quarter.

Cadman said the coaching staff told the Buckfield players before the game that the Saints like to play quick.

“We kind of told them, ‘They are going to play fast, and they are going to get on us quick if we don’t take care of the ball,'” Cadman said. “The biggest thing was trying to take care of the ball, but we didn’t do a great job with that. Now, it’s trying to motivate them to compete for 32 minutes and just play hard.”

The highlight of the Saints first-quarter run was a Varney dunk that extended the lead to 10-3.

“I got up there and dunked it; it was a fast break,” Varney said with a chuckle.

Varnkey and Perryman each had six points in the quarter.

Most of the points came from offensive rebounds.

“It’s pretty good when we crash,” Varney said. “We have to stay disciplined and continue to crash, though.”

Perryman sparked St. Dom’s offense in the second quarter when bench players started entering the game. He scored eight points in the quarter.

St. Dom’s also forced turnovers throughout the game, which helped build up its lead.

“We want to play fast and we want to press,” LaPrell said. “Like I said, we have a lot of length and we want to trap, and we want to get teams to play our pace, get up and down.”

Logan Carey had St. Dom’s first 3-pointer of the game in the second quarter. The Saints took a 45-11 lead into halftime.

Carey led the Saints in scoring in the second half with six points. He finished with nine points.

The Saints led 60-15 after three quarters.

Gaven Parsons helped Buckfield find some scoring in the fourth quarter by notching five points. He scored nine points in the game, as did Krosby Harvey.

“They competed and battled until they came out,” Cadman said of Parsons and Harvey. “We need them to battle early in the game, and not against their bench guys.”