RUMFORD — Mt. Abram pulled away in the third quarter to earn a 72-42 boys basketball win over the Mountain Valley on Tuesday.
Peyton Mitchell scored 14 of his 23 points in the third, during which the Roadrunners (5-0) turned defense into offense and outscored the Falcons 28-7.
“I think it was definitely our defense,” Mitchell said. “We pressed them in the third quarter and we created a lot of turnovers — they didn’t really hit anything. So, it was our defense.”
Mt Abram coach John Chase said Mitchell’s first focus is at the defensive end of the court.
“That kid is all about defense in practice,” Chase said. “We are doing offensive drills, he’s asking about defense. He just loves defense.”
Mitchell said the Roadrunners changed their press, which gave the Falcons fits.
“We usually sat back in the half-court, and in the third quarter, we extended it to about three-quarters,” Mitchell said. “I don’t know, it just opened it up for us.”
The Roadrunners’ other three top scorers accounted the remaining 14 points in the third quarter.
Cam Grey scored five of his 14 points in the third, Bryce Wilcox had five of his 11 and Killian Pillsbury chipped in four of his 12 points.
“I feel like the team we have, we have five guys that can score double-digits every single night,” Chase said.
Pillsbury then dropped in two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.
Mountain Valley coach Scott New said Mt. Abram didn’t need to run its half-court offense much in the third quarter.
“Every missed shot, every turnover led to a transition point,” New said. “We struggled to shoot the ball, and it showed tonight. We scored 16 points in that second half. We had the looks, we had opportunities to score. For some reason, we can’t find those easy baskets.”
After a slow start to the game by both teams, Mt. Abram got hot with about four minutes remaining in the first quarter. Grey finished the opening period with seven points and the Roadrunners held a 16-7 lead.
Chase said the big rain storm that hit Maine last month caused two of Mt. Abram’s games to be postponed. It also disrupted the Roadrunners’ rhythm, which has led to slow starts in the past few weeks.
“That rain, that really hurt us; we couldn’t go for a couple of days,” Chase said. “We had a lot of momentum, and we couldn’t do anything for a couple of days — that really hurt us.”
Back-to-back treys by Mitchell early in the second quarter extended Mt. Abram’s lead to 21-9.
“We usually don’t try to force too much, because that’s when we do usually hit our 3s is when we are driving to the basket — kicking (out), instead of shooting straight up 3s,” Mitchell said. “I think driving to the basket is helping us.”
The lead was pushed to 28-12 before the Falcons (2-4) started to cut into the deficit.
“They were up and they were kind of active,” New said of Mt. Abram. “We had some good takes at the basket, but their presence forced us into some like a Michael Jordan-eque layup. We have to go strong; we have to finish strong.”
Ben Desalle hit two free throws for Mountain Valley to make the score 28-14. He finished with a team-high seven points in the game. Then Tanner Henry made a bucket, putting the Falcons within 12.
After Reagan Lockeby basket for Mt. Abram, the Falcons finished the first half on a 10-4 run — Colby Frisbie scored four points and Seneca Jones hit two 3s — and went into the locker room down by six points, 34-28.
“When we got back into the game, we started making shots,” New said. “We were stopping them on the defensive side. But when we missed a shot, or we had a turnover, it leads right to transition points.”
Frisbie, Jones and Owen Sevigny all finished with six points for Mountain Valley.
“We don’t rely on one person to score, and I think that makes us tough, sometimes, to guard,” New said. “But I can’t have everybody on my team missing shots at the same time.”
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