Snell's Game-Winner In OT Lifts Maine To 6th Straight Win

WILMINGTON, DE – Tony Snell caught a kick-out pass off an offensive rebound and sank a 27-foot triple from the right wing to reach the target score, handing the Maine Celtics a 119-116 victory to sweep the two-game set against the Delaware Blue Coats. Maine has now won a season-high six consecutive games, and swept the 5-game road trip.

DJ Steward tied his season-high with 34 points (13-25 shooting), adding seven rebounds and 10 assists for his fifth double-double of the season and first game with double-digit assists. Drew Peterson added 19 points, seven rebounds and nine assists for Maine (17-11). Tony Snell grabbed six rebounds and finished with a season-high 19 points, shooting 7-11 from the field and 4-5 from downtown. Kylor Kelley posted 16 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high eight blocks, his third double-double in four games. Joe Wieskamp added 12 points and 10 rebounds. Jordan Walsh scored nine points in his return from a two-game absence. 

Terquavion Smith led Delaware (17-10) with 30 points and five assists. Patrick McCaw turned in 19 points and four rebounds and Melvin Frazier Jr. tallied 18 points and 15 rebounds. Chris Clarke put up 16 points, 15 rebounds and six assists. Rob Edwards logged 13 points and four rebounds and Jared Brownridge had 11 and five rebounds. 

Peterson banked a pull-up jumper off window to get the night started, and Edwards’ drive and finish down the left side of the lane gave Delaware its first bucket. Frazier finished a backdoor cut with a slam to give Delaware an early lead and Brownridge’s easy transition layup triggered a Maine timeout with the Celtics trailing 8-7. The pace picked up out of the huddle, with the benefit leaning towards Maine as Snell canned a triple and converted an and-one to help build the lead to eight, 24-16. The Celtics led by as many as 10, but a 9-0 Blue Coats run to close the quarter trimmed their deficit to just one, 28-27. 

Spanning the late-first and early-second, Delaware built a 13-0 run as costly turnovers plagued Maine’s offense. A three from Peterson quelled the run and briefly tied the game at 31 before he drew free throws on a transition layup attempt and gave Maine the lead back at the line. With the game knotted up at 40, Steward and Walsh hammered home dunks on consecutive fast breaks – Maine’s runs in the first half directly coincided with pace and ball security. Along with Steward, Snell was a consistent source of offense as he eclipsed his season-high with16 points in the first half and carrying the Celtics offense down the stretch of the quarter. The two sides traded leads late in the second, but the Blue Coats threw the last punch with Frazier’s last-second reverse layup to take a 59-58 into the locker room. 

A lay-in from Wieskamp handed Maine the lead in the opening minute of the third quarter, promptly restarting the back-and-forth battle. Wieskamp converted an and-one a few trips later to put the Celtics ahead 67-66 for the 20^th lead change of the game. The Blue Coats regained the lead with five unanswered, but Wieskamp continued his third-quarter takeover with five unanswered himself to nudge the Celtics back in front. Steward did the same on a step-back three later in the frame to give himself his sixth 20-point game in a row. From there, Delaware took a 9-4 run to the horn to take an 85-81 lead after three. 

The Celtics tied the game when Walsh put back his own miss with nine minutes and 36 seconds to go, then Steward buried a contested triple to make it 92-91 in favor of Maine. Jordan Jackson left his mark on the fourth quarter, cutting to the rim for a pair of easy layups before a huge chasedown block that prevented a transition layup and kept the Celtics up by three. Peterson stretched the lead to six with a deep trey, but a 5-0 solo run from Smith forced a Maine timeout as crunch time approached. 

A Clarke three and Frazier finish handed Delaware a two-point lead – a Steward three, take foul free throw and putback slam from Kelley quickly put Maine up 107-103. McCaw’s fourth three of the night gave the Blue Coats a one-point lead, and another three from Clarke extended it to four. Kelley finished a lob to cut it to two and kept it there with an emphatic rejection of Clarke at the rim. Steward drove through traffic and tied the game at 111 with a floater on the ensuing possession, and after an empty possession from each side to close the fourth, the game headed to overtime. 

With a target score of 118, Steward made a three on the first possession of the untimed overtime before Delaware scored five-straight to get within a bucket of the target score. Kelley countered the run with a difficult baseline jumper as the shot clock expired to tie the game at 116. Following a few empty possessions, the Celtics’ rebounding prowess shined through – after Peterson grabbed an offensive board, he kicked it out to Snell, who canned the game-winner from the right wing to give Maine its most thrilling victory of the season. 

The Celtics return home for a matchup with the Greensboro Swarm at the Portland Expo tomorrow evening to complete the back-to-back set.