Beacon Staff

The SMCC women and men’s basketball seasons started Saturday as the Seawolves teams traveled to Central Maine Community College to participate in the Can-Am Tournament. This year marks the 22nd year that the tournament has been played at CMCC, which has proven to be a wonderful venue to catch games that have an international flair.

On Saturday, the tournament opened with the SMCC Lady Seawolves taking on Cegep, Champlain St Lawerance. The Men Wolves would take to the court to play St. Thomas University in the 4pm game.

The Lady Seawolves squad has seen many changes to both the coaching staff and player roaster since the end of last season. Last May, Katie Bergeron was named as head coach and in September, Sarah Assante joined longtime assistant coach Patrick Haviland.

In Saturday’s afternoon game, the Lady Seawolves started off the game aggressively on the offensive and defensive side of the court. After one period of play the Lady wolves had outscored Cegep 28-16.

Jordan Farquharson set the tone for the first ten minutes of play by draining three three-point shots on five attempts. She would be the top scorer for both teams at the end of the first quarter. Destinie Montano added six points helping the Lady Wolves to build the double digit lead.

The second quarter of play saw each team post 15 points apiece enabling the SMCC squad to maintain a lead that the Cepeg squad would not be able to overcome during the second half of the opening game.

The second half of play saw Cepeg out score the Wolves by three points which would not be enough to overcome the 12-point deficit they found themselves in at halftime.

Sophomore Jordan Farquharson would bring home top scoring honors at the end of regulation after netting 20 points. Jordan also grabbed ten rebounds and had two steals. Hannah Heald would also record a double-double, by scoring 11 points and grabbing 15 boards.

In Sundays action, the Lady Seawolves took to the court in a mid-morning game against University of Brunswick St John’s. The Seawolves looked to improve not just upon their record, but with their transition game, working the clock and looking for the appropriate shot.

Sunday’s game would start out tighter for the Seawolves as they would struggle to find their offensive flow and settle with a five to five tie after ten minutes of play.

Both offensives turned on the offense in the second quarter which enabled UNBSJ to grab a three-point lead 26-23 heading into intermission. The three point shooting of SMCC would keep the Seawolves close as Jennifer Conrad and Allica Ruth would connect twice apiece from beyond the line. Destinie Montano’s five points greatly aided the Wolves in a quarter when scoring was a bit scarce.

The third quarter saw the Lady Wolves out score UNBSJ fourteen to seven, which erased a three-point deficit giving the Seawolves a four-point lead going into the final quarter. While no single player lite up the scoring box, five different players helped spread out the scoring for the Wolves.

The fourth quarter proved to be quite the contest as the Seawolves were unable to pull away from UNBSJ, and UNBSJ couldn’t cut into and overtake SMCC. With a little more than a minute left, Kayla Abdul buried a 3-pointer padding SMCC’s lead back to 5. After a foul that was committed by SMCC’s Hannah Heald, UNBSJ would connect on one of the two shoots trimming the lead to 4. After some moments of erratic play Jen Conrad would once again connect at the foul line padding the lead back to five.

SMCC would close out the game after a UNBSJ turnover as they brought the ball down court in the final seconds of the game. SMCC started off the weekend as they started it winning in Auburn and getting the season off with a 2-0 record.

In the second game of the Sunday’s games for SMCC, the men Wolves took to the floor and started off their game against UNBSJ by nailing their first three three-point shoot. The flurry of scoring was capped off when Chase Soares stole the ball along the UNBSJ baseline dribbled up court and tossing up a beautifully timed ally-oop pass which was finished off by Ryan Cloutier dunk. Ryan would earn a trip to the line after being fouled while in the act of shooting.

While not tremendously tall in the paint, SMCC does have an inside presence with veterans John Morgan, Keanyon Lambert and Dylan Silvestri, and freshmen Anthony and Patrick Lobor, and Ryan Cloutier that makes them a force to be reckoned with. The Wolves bring a defensive intensity and offensive patience and focus to the front line that basketball enthusiast should enjoy.

With a little under 5 minutes to play in the first half he Seawolves had built a 11-point lead. After UNBSJ cut the lead to 9, freshman Timothy Dixon padded SMCC’s lead back to 12 after draining a three-pointer from the left hand corner. With two defensive shops SMCC went on to build a 17-point lead which was answered by a three from UNBSJ. SMCC would sustain their double digit lead and go into half time leading 49-35.

The start of the second half started off a bit rough for the Seawolves as UNBSJ scored the first 5 points cutting into the Wolves lead. Baskets by Kenyon Martin and Ryan Cloutier kept the Seawolves lead in the high end of single digits, but the renewed high energy that UNBSJ opened the second half with gave SMCC mild fits.

With a little more than 5 minutes to play UNBSJ had trimmed the Wolves lead to 6. A charging call on UNBSJ would stall their drive to cut further into the lead. After a SMCC turnover and missed layup UNBSJ cut the lead to 4 on a breakaway layup. After a few minutes of erratic play Matthew Tenney’s 3 pointer padded SMCC’s lead back to 7.

The Wolves would see their lead cut to one after two consecutive three point plays. SMCC would relinquish the lead for a few seconds until John Morgan rattled off 6 consecutive points giving SMCC a 5-point lead. Defense was key on the next UNBSJ offensive play as Chase Soares steal leading to an Anthony Lobor layup. With a few seconds under 10 minutes to pay SMCC had survived a NBSJ offensive push because of their defense pressure.

Highlights going down the stretch include: two beautiful drives by Chase Soares which were finished off with crisp tight passes to Dylan Silvestri and John Morgan, a three-point shot by freshman Timothy Dixon, John Morgan finding his way to the foul line, and the swarming defensive pressure applied by the SMCC squad.

After 40 minutes of play, the Men Seawolves would finish their first weekend of play as the Lady’s did, starting off the 20-16-17 season with two sound wins.

In Saturday’s game, the Wolves would build a first half 12-point lead against a sound St. Thomas University squad and would have to regroup to hold off a serious offensive push by St. Thomas University in the second half.

Junior captain and veteran John Morgan would lead all scorers with 16 points and seven assists. Ryan Cloutier contributed nine-points while grabbing six rebounds. Eleven Seawolves would make it into the scoring box. The Wolves would walk off the floor with their first victory of the season, a 63-53 win against a sound St. Thomas University team.