It was a history-making home opener for the Maine Celtics on Friday night. For better and worse.

Alex O’Connell scored 23 points, Chuma Okeke added 20 points and the Westchester Knicks upset both Maine and their home opener by defeating the Celtics 127-100 in front of a sold-out crowd of 2,417 at the Portland Expo. A night where JD Davison became the franchise’s all-time leading scorer.

Moses Brown added 12 points and 17 rebounds for the Knicks (3-0 in the first three games of the Tip-Off Tournament). Baylor Scheierman led Maine (1-2) with 15 points, while Jay Scrubb added 12 points. But offensive moments for the Celtics were rare, and defensive stops were even rarer as Maine gave up 84 points in the first half (the most ever surrendered in a half). in team history.

“I would say it definitely wasn’t our night,” Davison said. “This was definitely their night. They shot very hard shots, and they shot a lot of empty shots. “We had some good shots tonight, so we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and come back on Sunday and try to win.”

With 3:13 left in the first quarter, Davison, a 2022 second-round draft pick from Alabama in his third year with the team, made a free throw to surpass the old franchise record of 1,591 points set by Chris. Wright from 2011-14.

Davison entered the game five points behind and the fans cheered as the public address announcer told them of the achievement.

Davison, who finished the match with 11 points and 7 assists, said, “I go out on the field every day and try to do my job, try to do my best.” “It sucked to be behind at that point in the game, we didn’t want to lose that game… but you gotta love the Expo crowd.”

Celtics Coach Tyler Lashbrook said Davison deserves the praise.

“He’s a fan favorite,” Lashbrook said. “I’ve always been impressed with him, his maturity, his growth and his ability to grow here every year.”

However, the rest of the match did not bring much joy to the fans. Playing in front of their home crowd for the first time since last year’s G League Finals, the Celtics were completely lacking in shooting ability. A succession of 3-point attempts – open, contested or in transition – hit hoop after hoop, resulting in a total of 15-of-44 from the field in the first half, trailing by 6-of-27 points and making it 84-46 at halftime. open.

“Throughout the first two games and camp, the high-percentage shots were open threes,” Lashbrook said. “If we get them, we have to take them. When shots aren’t falling, you have to lean into the collision to get more shots.”

With 3:33 left in the first quarter, Scheierman made a three-pointer and the score became 29-19. As Maine missed its next eight 3-point attempts, Jordan Schakel made another with 9:28 left in the second quarter, turning a 10-point lead into a 23-point gap in the process.

Although the shots weren’t falling, Maine also hurt itself with careless ball handling (14 turnovers, to four for Westchester) and porous defense that allowed Knicks players to finish in transition or knock down open shots. The 84 points allowed in the first half broke the team record of 82 points set in 2016 and was tied in January 2023.

“There was definitely some of it that had to do with missing shots,” Lashbrook said. “But there needs to be more than that to put in 84. The important thing for me was to protect the ball. We said the word ‘pride’, that was the word we talked about. I just take pride in protecting the ball.”

One of the scenes that told the story of the night was when Scheierman missed a three-pointer, Westchester’s Boo Buie grabbed the rebound and ripped the court, bobbled the ball in the Celtics’ half-court and still found Donovan Williams (19 points) on an open three-pointer. -pointer made the score 63-34.

It wasn’t all negative, as Maine outscored Westchester 40-19 to take a 51-point lead in the fourth quarter. The big quarter could pay off later — the point differential could be a tiebreaker in the standings for the Winter Showcase, which awaits after the 14-game Tip-Off Tournament — and Lashbrook credited his team for showing the fight late.

“(We were) looking for a group to come in and give us something,” said Lashbrook, who had 12 points from Scrubb and 11 from Tristan Enaruna in fourth place. “These men… they came, they played and they fought. These are the things we’re looking for.”

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