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Perry, Maine South have it covered against Maine West

Maine South had all the bases covered in its 66-49 win Saturday afternoon the the finale of the Maine West Thanksgiving Tournament against the host Warriors.

Hawks 6-foot-9 senior Brad Perry scored 17 points and set a school record with 21 rebounds. Guard John Arenas led Mane South (4-0) with 26 points and 7 rebounds. Forward Milos Ljiljak tossed in 14 points.

"We played hard as a team today," said Perry, who along with Arenas and Ljiljak was named all tournament. "Everyone worked hard to set each other up with good shots. We knew Maine West would be a tough team to beat. It was a great game for all of us."

Perry dominated the first quarter, scoring 11 points and converting 3 offensive rebounds out of the 8 he garnered in the first quarter.

Maine West (2-2) came back from trailing 7-3 to take a 17-14 lead on Jo Jo Rios' 3-point basket before settling for a 17-16 end of the quarter lead.

Tied at 19 with 6:42 left in the first half, Arenas caught fire scoring 13 points in a row to lift Maine South to a 32-19 lead with 2:53 left in the second quarter.

"It started with my teammates setting up shots for me," said Arenas. "We would throw the ball down low to Brad and they would crash down on him. He was able to kick it out to me and I was able to knock them down."

Arenas hit 3 of his 4 three-point baskets and had a three-point play in the spurt.

The Hawks finished the quarter leading 37-21.

Maine West didn't back down. The Warriors used three 3-points baskets from Julian Dones (18 points) and Rios (17 points) to cut the lead to 49-40 to finish the third quarter. Maine West scored the last 7 points of the quarter.

"We hit some good shots in the quarter," said Maine West coach John Bongiorno. "I told the kids at halftime we could not hit a 15-point shot. We had to come back slowly."

"There was no panic in us when they made that run," said Arenas. "This team does a good job of keeping our poise. We played even keel throughout the game."

The start of the fourth quarter showed that poise as Maine South received baskets from Ljiljak (3), Nick Foldvary and Perry to increase the lead to 56-40 with 5:36 remaining.

"I was happy with the overall experience that we had today, " said Hawks coach Tony Lavorato. "Teams are going to hit shots. But as long as they don't rebound those misses and get shots in the lane, I can live with that."

"Jon scores in bunches," said Lavorato. "He's still in a little bit of a football frame of mind. When the game starts slowing down for him he will be that much better."

The Warriors connected on 12 three-point baskets out of their 16 field goals.

"I thought we competed better against a good team," said Bongiorno. "The season is still young and we just need to put four quarters together against teams like this."

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