RUMFORD — Not that it was a great mystery, but we found out Tuesday night what a zero in the loss column and a miniscule number next to its name in the tournament bracket mean to Mountain Valley.
Down by nine points with six minutes left, the Falcons watched wounded star guard Cam Kaubris go all Willis Reed on Livermore Falls and rallied to a 49-46 MVC boys’ basketball victory at Puiia Gym.
Kaubris, who hadn’t played and hardly practiced since spraining his right ankle one week ago, hobbled off the bench when as-needed unraveled into desperately needed.
“Coach (Rick White) told me to go warm up in the hallway a little bit. I felt like a soccer player,” Kaubris said. “He said, ‘If you want to go a couple minutes, I’ll give you a couple minutes.’ A couple minutes turned into a couple more minutes which turned into the whole fourth quarter.”
Livermore Falls led 29-26 when Kaubris entered the game with 2:30 remaining in the third quarter. Mike Anctil’s 3-pointer immediately doubled that cushion.
Kaubris never again left the court. And even as the Andies’ newfound advantage grew to 37-30, then 40-31, the Falcons flaunted confidence and intensity that lay dormant most of the evening.
“Aside from that fourth quarter, we hadn’t been physical all game,” said Kaubris, who is also battling a winter cold. “That’s the tone I wanted to set was push a few guys around and get some things going. We were stagnant. We needed to get a little fire lit under our butts.”
Kaubris scored seven points and forced two significant turnovers in the Livermore Falls backcourt. The second led to Izaak Mills’ sixth 3-pointer, restoring Mountain Valley’s lead for good with 1:47 to go.
Mills scored 10 of his game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter.
“We persevered, and that’s the way we’re going right now,“ White said. “I think we can make some damage in the tournament if we can get everybody where they need to be. The last four games, we haven’t had everybody together.”
Mountain Valley (15-0) stayed in the hunt for its second straight undefeated regular season and a top-two seed in the Western Class B tournament. White believes that one or two losses in the Falcons’ final four games could have dropped them as low as No. 5.
Over in Western C, an upset would have wrapped up a quarterfinal berth for Livermore Falls (9-6). Now there’s a strong possibility that the Andies will need to beat Boothbay on Friday night to avoid the preliminary round.
Mike Armstrong dominated down low for Livermore Falls with 16 points and 22 rebounds. Anctil, Hunter Brett and Mike Castonguay each added 10 points. Brett added five assists and four steals.
“I don’t think anything good comes from this,” Livermore Falls coach Travis Magnusson said. “We had a chance to win the game in the last three minutes, and we made mistakes. Hopefully we learn from those mistakes and don’t have the same things cost us in tournament play.”
Livermore Falls held Mountain Valley to 25 percent (15-for-60) shooting.
On the down side, the Andies missed their last six free throws in the fourth quarter and committed 28 turnovers to the Falcons’ 12.
“What hurt us was every time we got a rebound, they fouled us, so we either threw the ball away or they didn’t call the foul,” Magnusson said. “We got a lot of turnovers from that.”
The Andies missed two freebies and a chance to tie or reclaim the lead with nine seconds left.
Zach Radcliffe grabbed the rebound for Mountain Valley and subsequently scored his only two points of the night at the line.
Livermore Falls pushed up court for a potential tying 3-pointer but was called for a double-dribble with less than a second left.
Mills’ back-to-back 3-pointers were his first points since the 4:50 mark of the second quarter and capped a 15-4 run for the Falcons.
“It means everything,” Mills said of the win.
Or at least enough to pull out all the stops. It didn’t look like the Falcons would have to turn to Plan B after their first 15-4 surge of the game — immediately following the opening tap.
All six Falcons field goals in the first period were 3-pointers. But a 1-for-11 skid in the second and a 1-for-18 start to the third, coupled with Armstrong’s unyielding work on the boards, put the Andies in command.
“I told Coach, ‘Limited at best, and only if you need me.’ We needed me tonight,” Kaubris said.
koakes@sunjournal.com
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