RUMFORD — Mt. Abram had all it could handle from Mountain Valley’s Cooper Davis and still led for all but a minute or so on Saturday, so a Davis-led comeback wasn’t going to send the Roadrunners into panic mode.

The Roadrunners merely took the comeback in stride.

Kenyon Pillsbury’s steal and subsequent pass leading to fellow junior guard Hunter Warren’s layup with 10 seconds left clinched a 68-63 win for Mt. Abram on Saturday, giving the 6-2 Roadrunners a rare season sweep of their Class B Mountain Valley Conference rivals.

Pillsbury led the Roadrunners with 22 points, but they got major contributions from the entire starting five, beginning with Warren chipping in with 15 points, including seven in the fourth quarter. Senior forward Nate Luce added 13 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore guard Adam Luce (five of eight points in the fourth) and junior forward Thomas Deckard-Madore (eight points, nine rebounds, two blocks) had key hoops that put Mt. Abram in front for good early in the fourth quarter.

The Roadrunners rarely flinched despite Mountain Valley (2-4) turning up the defensive pressure in the second half and despite having the 6-foot-8 Davis towering over them at both ends. Davis scored 14 of his game-high 36 points (to go with 12 rebounds and three blocks) in the third quarter to help the Falcons rally from a 10-point deficit early in the second half and take their first lead of the game on his three-point play with 1:49 remaining in the third.

“I was really proud of how the boys stuck through it,” Mt. Abram coach Dustin Zamboni said. “They kept their heads, continued to play strong. The guards played with great poise under pressure up top. You’ve got to give Mountain Valley credit for all of the pressure they put on, and Cooper Davis had an awesome day inside. He’s hard to stop.”

“Our team chemistry is pretty good this year,” Pillsbury said. “Our guards normally can control the flow of the game, when there’s not a whole lot of pressure. Even with pressure, we normally do pretty well. We knew they had to press at some point.”

Tied at 48 to start the fourth, Mountain Valley took the lead for the second and final time on a drive by junior Kalen Chase (12 points, five assists). Deckard-Madore’s answer sparked a 9-1 Mt. Abram run consisting of an Adam Luce 3-pointer, Warren hoop and Pillsbury layup off of a Nate Luce steal to make it 57-51 Roadrunners.

“Some of these guys are pretty young, so they’re not used to playing in close-game situations on the road like this with a good team like Mountain Valley,” Zamboni said. “It was just to remind them that sometimes this happens. This is what we play for.”

Ethan Casey’s 3-pointer helped pull the Falcons back within three at 59-56, and Elijah Weston sank two free throws to make it a one-point game with 2:08 to go.

Nate Luce knifed his way to the hoop to make it 66-63 with 24 seconds left, prompting Mountain Valley’s timeout to set up a tying play that Pillsbury foiled with his quick hands.

Reminiscent to the quick start of their 64-53 win over the Falcons earlier in the season, the Roadrunners streaked out to a 10-1 lead. Pillsbury scored eight points in the first quarter as Mountain Valley missed its first seven shots and found itself looking up at a nine-point deficit (17-8) after Pillsbury beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer.

The Roadrunners are all about beating the other team down the floor in transition, but a quicker pace in the second quarter helped the Falcons pick up their shooting. Chase scored eight points in the period to help the Falcons close within four.

“Once they started looking for each other and started playing basketball, that’s how we got back in the game,” Mountain Valley coach Scot New said. “Guys were starting to do things that they know how to do.”

Three consecutive 3-pointers — Nate, Adam, Nate — gave Mt. Abram its largest lead at 30-17 with three minutes to go in the half.

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