Mt. Blue’s Dawson Black (10) goes up for a shot as Lewiston’s Steven Beauregard (32) and Yasin Mohamud (24) watch during a basketball game in Farmington on Wednesday night. (Tony Blasi/Sun Journal)
FARMINGTON — The Mt. Blue Cougars tried everything to disrupt Lewiston’s rhythm on offense, but the Blue Devils never really broke ranks thanks to their dazzling passing, outside shooting and speed in a boys’ basketball game Wednesday night.
The Cougars had a few moments when they crept up on the Devils, but Lewiston didn’t flinch and slipped away with a convincing 80-64 victory.
There were telltale signs in the first half that the Devils were up for big night. Lewiston reeled off 12 unanswered points before concluding the opening stanza with a 21-10 lead.
Mt. Blue got its act together in the second quarter, but the Blue Devils never let up from the perimeter — and there always seemed to be an open player underneath the basket for Lewiston in the first half.
The Devils’ momentum led them to a 34-27 lead at halftime.
“It was fun to watch,” Lewiston coach Tim Farrar said. “I think one of things is this is a very aggressive team. They take you out of your rhythm, and if you can’t attack that, then you are going to be in trouble because they really get up in the passing lanes and there are a lot good athletes. … They are playing hard. Coach Travis Magnusson has them really playing hard. Big Cougar pride.
“You have to counter that with ball passing. The ball didn’t stick tonight. It really moved well, and I was telling the kids this is as good as we played against a zone and that kind of pressure in a long time. We wanted to establish inside with (senior) Hassan Hussein and then let it play from there. He’s a good passer. He sees the floor well. Then everybody else got going.”
Hussein did a lot of the heavy lifting on offense, scoring the game-high 23 points and knocking down three 3-pointers.
“I think they (Cougars) are a great team. They competed, we competed,” Hussein said. “My team has had my back and that’s the confidence all I need. I just shot out all the negativity.”
Senior Yasin Mohamud was right behind Hussein when it came to scoring, dropping in 18 points and keeping Lewiston’s passing flowing. Junior Evan Williams supplied the Blue Devils with 19 points and went 4-for-4 at the free-throw line.
“Mt. Blue is a great team,” Mohamud said. “We just found the openings in the gaps and found ways to score and just trusting my teammates.
“We just found different ways to score and kept to it.”
Things got a little dicey for the Blue Devils when Mt. Blue closed to within five points in the third quarter, but Lewiston stayed in lockstep and quickly built 13-point lead.
For Mt. Blue, Garrett Reynolds and Jacob Farham each contributed 17 points, and they were followed by James Anderson’s 10 points.
“We didn’t put in an effort today,” Magnusson said. “That’s what I told the guys, we have to play hard as a team if we are going to win. We did that when we beat Cony and beat Hampden. We played harder, and today we let them have more energy than us.
“They are good. They have three guys who can break you down. We didn’t make as many shots as we normally do, but credit to them, they are good team.”
Mt. Blue’s James Anderson (11) drives to the basket as Lewiston’s Yasin Mohamud (24) intervenes during a basketball game in Farmington on Wednesday night. (Tony Blasi/Sun Journal)
Mt. Blue coach Travis Magnusson speaks with a player as he watches the Cougars take on the Lewiston Blue Devils in Farmington on Wednesday night. (Tony Blasi/Sun Journal)
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