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03/04/2017 11:00 PMThe Westbrook boys’ basketball team pulled off a third quarter for the ages en route to a 63-49 victory versus East Hampton in the Shoreline Conference Tournament final in front of a sold-out crowd at Morgan on March 3. The top-seeded Knights rallied from a nine-point deficit by outscoring 2nd-seeded East Hampton 27-5 in the third to claim the Shoreline title and improve to 21-2 on the season.
The win marked the first conference championship in program history for Westbrook and Head Coach Jeff Beeman, who’s in the 33rd year of his career. The gym was packed full of Westbrook students, faculty, and fans who spurred their team to victory. The Knights’ contingent erupted in elation as the final seconds ticked down, and senior captain Liam Bell knows how important the win was for the team and his community.
“This is family. It’s more than basketball to us,” said Bell, who had 15 points with 10 rebounds and six assists. “We’ve got the whole town behind us. We’ve got a small school of what, 250 kids? Three quarters of us showed up for this game. It was for us, but it was for everyone around us, too. We brought the first championship for boys’ basketball to the school and it’s just amazing.”
Westbrook scored the first four points of the game, but East Hampton came on strong by sinking three consecutive three-pointers to take a 9-4 lead. Westbrook went on a run at the end of the period and cut it to 14-12.
The Bellringers (18-5), who had snapped Westbrook’s 15-game win streak during the regular season, kept up their attack in the second quarter by getting to rebounds and letting the threes fly to extend their lead to 26-20. The Knights’ offense looked stagnant in the second and there was one sequence where Westbrook had four consecutive empty possessions, resulting in East Hampton holding a 31-22 advantage at halftime.
However, as was the case in his club’s two previous Shoreline Tournament victories, Coach Beeman had the Knights buzzing after halftime as they came out looking to do some damage in the third quarter. Bell started the second half with consecutive treys to shrink East Hampton’s lead to three, while the Knights also started to get after it on defense. By virtue of pressuring at the three-point line, Westbrook never gave the Bellringers any comfortable attempts from beyond the arc like they had in the first half. The Knights’ defensive stand saw them play big on the glass, box out, and simply out-will the Bellringers by corralling every rebound and the 50-50 balls. Just two minutes into the second half, the Knights had tied the game at 31-31.
On East Hampton’s next possession, Knights’ senior captain Cory Muckle (18 points, 3 assists) hovered around the top of the key as the Bellringers set up in a high screen, looking to create a spot-up three-point shot on the weak side. Muckle pounced on the kick-out to the arc, intercepted the pass, and blew past the Bellringers for a lay-up and the lead. Westbrook only allowed two East Hampton baskets in the third quarter and outscored them 27-5 for a 49-36 lead through three. The Knights never allowed East Hampton to get within single digits the rest of the way and went on to the 63-49 victory.
It was obvious to Coach Beeman, as well as everyone else in the building, that the Knights won this game behind their dominant third quarter that came on the heels of a rough first half.
“We did not play well in the first half. We didn’t defend well, we didn’t run offense well, we had zero ball movement,” said Beeman. “Second half, we came out and Bell got us going with a couple of threes and that brought us right back into it. We kind of feed off that, the snowball started running down the hill.”
In addition to the big nights from Bell and Muckle, Westbrook saw senior forward Dave Amendola lead the way in rebounds with 11, while senior guard Austin Herzy rounded out the scoring with nine points.
East Hampton’s offense was paced by its three-point shooting and, once the Knights started pestering anyone who handled the ball near the thee-point arc, the Bellringers were unable to get any momentum going in the second half. Muckle, who forced several East Hampton turnovers, credited Coach Beeman for getting his squad to step up in the third quarter.
“Coach told us they were going to take it to us and we had to take it right back to them,” said Muckle. “It started with our defense and getting them off the three-point line.”
Typical of its philosophy, Westbrook’s defense made the difference in the win and led to Knights hoisting the Shoreline Conference trophy at center court, while East Hampton looked on.
“27-5 in the third quarter—most people would look at that and say we had great offense. I look at that and say we had great defense,” said Beeman. “Rebound the basketball and your offense can feed off of that.”
Of course, it’s huge for any team to win a championship. For the Knights, it’s extra special because this group of athletes has been playing together for several years—even before they arrived at Westbrook High School.
“It’s great to get this win with these guys,” said Muckle. “I’ve been playing with them since I was like four years old.”
It takes a ton of work to become a championship team, and Bell appreciates how all the time and effort has paid off for the Knights this season.
“We just stepped it up, we brought it all in the second half, and we turned it up as a team,” Bell said. “We were not going to be stopped and we deserved it. We’ve worked every summer, every day, to get to this moment. It’s crazy.”
Coach Beeman and his team are now gearing up for Class S State Tournament, but they won’t let their landmark win in the Shoreline final go by without reveling in it—at least for a little while.
“We’re going to enjoy this for a day. [March 5] we get back at it,” said Beeman. “We’ll talk about this game. We’ll do a thing we call upside-downside, where we discuss what we did well, what we did poorly, and then we move on to the next one.”
From the Sidelines
On their way to their Shoreline Conference Tournament final, the Knights squared off against Old Saybrook in the semifinals and prevailed 63-55. The game included another defensive stand in the third quarter by the Knights, who only allowed seven points during the frame. Cory Muckle scored 28 points, Liam Bell had 19 points with five assists, Dave Amendola grabbed 13 rebounds, and Austin Herzy pulled down nine boards and had three assists.
In the Class S State Tournament, Westbrook is the top seed and will host No. 32 Portland (9-12) in the first round at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 7. With a win, Westbrook would host the winner of No. 16 Lyman Memorial and Public Safety in the second round at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 9.