Friday, February 26, 2010

Bridgton Stumbles at Winchendon

Bridgton traveled to Winchedon for the final regular season game of the season. BA was poised to beat another top league rival, leading at the half 32-26 but got out played over the games final ten minutes to lose a hard fought contest 70-58.

After trailing 9-4 the Wolverines dug in on the defensive end and executed their motion offense with confidence. Good play on both ends propelled Bridgton to a 32-20 lead before Winchendon countered with six unanswered points, cutting the BA lead to six at half.

The Wapiti made a run to even the game immediately at the start of the second half. Bridgton responded and the two teams remained deadlocked with 12 minutes left. Winchendon was able to break the game open a bit, yet BA was still able to get a clean look out of a timeout that would have brought it back to six points with three minutes remaining.

Coach Lesure was complimentary of his teams play, but cited the missed oppertunity before half, "We were playing well no doubt, but you have to stay in the trance, you can't lose your focus or let up for a possession." Lesure continued with, "They grabbed some momentum, pushed on us pretty good in the second half and I thought maybe we lost our legs. We didn't sustain our defensive position nor run as effective movement offensively. Which was the stronger team in the second half."

Alex Harris (Richomnd, CA) had 18 points, Paul Dick (Belfast, Ireland) had 14 and Addison Williams (Boulder, CO) added 11 for BA.

As the Wolverines wait for word on the upcoming playoffs Lesure sees an improved team in the locker room, "Our chemistry is a lot better. We are getting valuable individual efforts from ten guys. I understand we are a long shot in Las Vegas to advance too far in the tournament, but the games aren't played on paper, they're on wood, I might have to ask these guys if they're ever heard the story of NC State."

Bridgton awaits its playoff seeding, which will begin over the weekend.

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