BOYS’ BASKETBALL

Windham at Portland

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Windham 18, Portland 16

Cameron Brown and Ivan Kaffel scored five points each as the Eagles (6-9) held off the Bulldogs (3-12) in Portland.

Stillman Mahan scored six points for Portland.

Boys’ basketball notebook: Time to heat up shot clock debate

Windham and Portland combined for 34 points in possibly the lowest scoring SMAA game in five years.

BY STEVE CRAIGSTAFF WRITERShare

No, it wasn’t a misprint. Windham High’s boys’ basketball team really did beat Portland 18-16 on Tuesday night at the Portland Expo. That’s right, two Class AA boys’ teams failed to score 20 points.

“My phone’s been going off the hook. ‘Is that the right score?’” Portland Coach Joe Russo said.

The most points either team scored in a quarter was seven, when Windham (6-9) extended its 8-7 halftime lead to 15-11.

Both Russo and Windham Coach Chad Pulkkinen said they were not intentionally stalling. Instead, they both stuck with their 2-3 zone defense, believing it gave their team the best chance to win.

“It was a chess match of who was going to give in,” Pulkkinen said. “We didn’t stall at all.”

Pulkkinen added, “We had the lead the entire game, so there was no reason for us to come out of (the zone). We weren’t going to change our game plan. Portland (3-12) needed to change theirs.”ADVERTISING

Russo said while the pace was deliberate, the bigger issue was that his team made only five shots and struggled to get attempts against Windham. According to Pulkkinen’s analysis of the game tape, Portland had possession of the ball for 25 minutes, 40 seconds of the 32-minute game. The Eagles, who shot 6 of 16, have hung their hat on their stingy zone. They’ve also beaten Oxford Hills and Bangor, which is 12-3, without reaching 40 points in those games.

Still, the low score leads to an annual question: Should Maine adopt a shot clock for high school basketball?

“If there’s an argument for a shot clock, our game was a poster child for it,” Pulkkinen said.

“I’m in favor of a shot clock, not because of that game, just because that’s what they play at the next level,” Russo said.

Eight states use a shot clock for high school basketball, bucking the rules set by the National Federation of State High School Associations. Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Washington, New York, California, North Dakota and South Dakota employ either a 30- or 35-second clock for both boys’ and girls’ basketball.

Wisconsin voted to become the ninth state this season but reversed its decision after significant pushback from school administrators worried about the cost of installing shot clocks and paying people to operate them.Advertisement

Cost and the NFHS rules are the major reasons for keeping the status quo in Maine, said Mike Burnham, the Maine Principals’ Association’s executive director for interscholastic activities.

“First and foremost is the added expense that every school would need to purchase two shot clocks, get them wired, and then hire someone separate to run it,” Burnham said.

Burnham also suggested that the Windham-Portland game is an exception.

“I think the game of basketball right now is more up and down and there may not be the need for a shot clock,” he said.

In the 2014-15 season, Portland lost at South Portland, 20-16 in overtime.

“That one five years ago, we were intentionally stalling,” Russo said. “This one was poor execution, poor shooting, and then the chess match of why wouldn’t (Windham) extend its defense and why wouldn’t I extend ours.”