Unbeaten Falcon boys not taking anything for granted

RUMFORD -- There is always room for improvement for the Mountain Valley boys' basketball team, who entered the week unbeaten but refuse to take anything for granted.

“The flu bug has really hit this team hard as of late and it has shown on the court,” said coach Rick White. “Hopefully, it is all behind us now and we can move forward. We have some big games coming up (Winthrop, Livermore Falls, Dirigo and Telstar) and we need to win them all if we want to remain high in Heal Points.”

MV is a very up-tempo team that likes to run and its objective on offense is to launch up a shot every 12 seconds. They have averaged over 70 points a game with a trio scoring in double figures -- Cam Kaubris (20 points per game), Jacob Theriault (13.2) and Izaak Mills (11.4). The team has developed the most depth in the entire conference.

Every player receives playing time in each game, so assistant Dave Radcliffe and White have developed a method on when to make substitutions.

Based on personnel, it begins with 6-5 centers Hanson Gorham and Justin Carter, who each play two or three minutes at a time, unless they are playing really well; then they may tend to go longer with them. Next to come out is usually Theriault because by giving him breaks he is fresh and shoots the ball better. The first substitute is usually Isaac Roberts (leading rebounder).

When Zach Radcliffe or Mills come out, they insert Adam Volkernick, Ryan Nicols, Andrew Child or Brandon Milligan.

“We do go by feel a lot of the time,” said White, who noted all this changes if the team gets into foul trouble. “If Dave feels someone needs a blow, we go with that. I give him a lot of the responsibility to make those changes and he has done a great job doing that for the team.”

Defensively, Zach Radcliffe (steals leader) has really stepped up his game; more active role in guarding the opposing point guard. Kaubris and Theriault lead in assists and three pointers, respectively.

“I think one of the strengths has been the overall shooting of the team," said White. “An area that we continually work on is defense. We still have not come out and completely dominated a game this year. We need to do a better job on our rotations and that falls on me.”

The team is very concerned with the heals and seeding (second in Class B last week), but they truly feel that they can make some noise in the tournament.